Behind the Mask
by vampnira92
Summary: The 3rd Great Ninja War has destroyed everything Yuriko holds dear. After years of traveling, she grows weary of her life as a wanderer and decides to protect the peace rather than be a victim of war and requests to serve the only place seemingly untouched by the fighting- Konoha. Maybe she can call it home here and maybe she will find someone to be together in the darkness with.
1. Chapter 1

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not get paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_A/N: Hello, everyone! My name is Nira and welcome back to old friends, and hello and welcome to new ones. First of all, thank you for being interested at all. 384 characters isn't much at all for a summary and it's hard to encompass the essence of a story in it so if my attempt at a good summary drew you in, I appreciate your interest and/or curiosity. Second of all, I have a disclaimer (not about the rights to Naruto, because that's above) about this story. This is the first story in a VERY long time that I am posting as I go along so I literally have no idea what's going to happen. Usually I write a story out in its entirety before I edit, revise, and publish, but with this story, that is not the case. _

_With that being said, please be patient with me and don't be afraid to let me know what you think about it. I practically live off of reviews and constructive criticism. The good news, though, is that I already have seven chapters written for this and have started chapter eight. Because I have that many chapters already, I am hopeful that this story won't be a failure or that I won't grow bored with it and give up on it for a while. I can usually tell within 5 chapters whether or not I will get far with a story and more often than not if I'm stuck within those five chapters, the plot won't go anywhere and I give up. _

_Anyway, my plan (what little of one there is) is for the story to progress slowly. If you've read any of my other stories, you can see that I have a tendency for my characters to either have a history with their romantic interest or to fall in love "at first sight," so for this story I am attempting to start the relationship between Yuriko (my OC) and Kakashi from the bottom up and work into the romance. Because this is something I don't usually do and I'm trying to broaden my skills as a writer, I am begging you to review and let me know how I can improve the story. _

_So, without further ado, please enjoy the first chapter of my newest story "Behind the Mask" which takes place after the 3__rd__ Great Ninja War and before the first season of the original Naruto series, and I hope to see you in the next chapter as well. :) -Nira_

Behind the Mask

Chapter 1

_A young woman stands before the gate of Konoha with nothing but the simple violet yukata that she is wearing, her straight platinum hair cascading down her back to her hips. She gazes up at the swirling leaf symbol burned into the wood above the gate with lavender eyes and lets out a sigh. She has traveled for a very long time to get here, and she can only hope and pray that it is everything her mother had told her it was as a child and that they would welcome her as a new member of their community. Boldly, she ventures forward to what will hopefully be a new, brighter future._

* * *

"Enter," came the stern voice of an elderly man from behind a heavy wooden door, and a young woman was escorted in by a male shinobi about her age of early to mid-twenties. His hair was long, about shoulder-length and brown, and a senbon was perched between his teeth. His bandana style forehead protector was tied on backwards with the Konoha symbol on the back of his head, and his outfit was the standard jounin of a green vest, blue pants, and a blue long sleeved undershirt with a red swirl on each arm and in the center of the back of the vest.

"Hokage-sama, you have a visitor," the shinobi informed before bowing and taking his leave to go back to work, looking the newcomer once over as he left.

The elder man looked up from his paperwork and the remaining woman bowed humbly, her waist-length, straight platinum-blonde hair falling over her shoulder slightly and her pale violet eyes staying downcast.

"My name is Yuriko Kobayashi, aged twenty three. I originally hail from the Land of Snow but I have been a wandering kunoichi for almost ten years now. I grow weary of wandering and respectfully request to become a Konoha shinobi and make Konoha my permanent residence," she explained, keeping a straight face and not making eye contact.

"Why did you choose Konoha as your place to settle down?"

"I have been all over the ninja world and everywhere in between and of all of the places I've been, Konoha has been my favorite. The people here are kind and among all of the great shinobi nations, it is also the most peaceful. I have seen enough war and destruction to last a lifetime and am desperate for somewhere that I don't have to worry about whether or not I will have to flee again."

"I can see that you have lost a great deal in your short lifetime, Yuriko," the old man mused and after a short moment of silence, he spoke up again. "Very well. First of all you will need to be evaluated to see your skill set and where on the scale from genin to ANBU you fall. I will give you a day to prepare. Be here in my office tomorrow morning at seven o'clock sharp."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. I have one other request before I leave."

"What's that?"

"Are there any shinobi who do not have missions today who might be able to help me? I would like to purchase supplies and do some light training before my evaluation."

"I see… There is one person who I'd intended to be your opponent tomorrow, but…"

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama, isn't there anyone else? I would rather not know my opponent at all when I fight them so as not to compromise my ability."

"Very well…" he stated, reaching for a document atop his desk and skimming through it. "There is a kunoichi who should have a bit of free time. She is not quite yet a jounin like your opponent, but she is very skilled and may be of some help to you."

"Thank you very much."

The elder man called the shinobi who had shown Yuriko in, Genma, and told him to send for Kurenai Yuuhi and whispered a second name. Within a few short minutes a female with wavy black hair to the middle of her back and large red eyes walked into the office and bowed. Yuriko took in the looks of the kunoichi who also appeared to be about her age, sizing her up.

"Kurenai, this is Yuriko Kobayashi. She is new to Konoha and has requested to become a Konoha shinobi. Please show her around and help her obtain supplies and train. She will be evaluated tomorrow morning so train hard, but don't overdo it," the Hokage stated gesturing to the platinum blonde.

"Please treat me kindly," Yuriko bowed courteously.

"Come on. I'll help you with whatever you need," Kurenai offered, and before they left, Yuriko bowed again to the Hokage.

As the two were walking down the hall, they were passed by a shinobi with silver hair, a mask covering the lower half of his face, and his headband over his left eye leaving only his right eye and ear visible. Yuriko and he happened to lock eyes for a brief moment in passing and Yuriko felt a twinge of recognition or familiarity and faltered in her step.

"Are you coming?" Kurenai smiled from a bit further down the hallway, so Yuriko returned her attention to her guide and walked faster to catch up.

The silver haired male had examined the kunoichi, as well, curious and suspicious as to whom she was. He'd never seen someone who looked like her anywhere he'd traveled to before and he couldn't shake the fact that she had such penetrating eyes as she'd examined him. It was almost as if she'd known him from somewhere but couldn't quite pinpoint it. He was brought out of his thoughts when he reached the Hokage's office door and knocked.

When he'd entered the room and closed the door, the Hokage began immediately, "Kakashi, I'm sure you passed by a silver-haired kunoichi on your way here, so I'll get right to the point. She claims to be a wandering kunoichi who wishes to settle down here in Konoha as a shinobi. I can sense darkness within her, but I do not wish to seem as though we are being uncompassionate or unwelcoming. I am a bit suspicious so I want you to keep an eye on her and report to me any strange findings until further notice. I would also like you to be her opponent tomorrow for her evaluation to see where her skill sets fall on the scale of genin to ANBU. She will meet me here tomorrow morning at seven o'clock and we will make our way to training field three."

"Understood," Kakashi nodded and bowed before taking his leave to find the kunoichi duo.

Before long he spotted them walking through the streets of Konoha in comfortable silence. When they walked past somewhere that Kurenai visited often or enjoyed, she would point it out and say that it was a local favorite spot for whatever it was that each store specialized in while Yuriko took mental notes to visit each of them to see if they were really any good or not. Eventually they reached a ninja supplies store. On one side was a weapons and supplies shop and on the other side were clothing, shoes, and accessories.

First Yuriko tried on clothes, deciding to buy a few outfits mostly consisting of fishnet shirts, shorts, and half vests that covered her chest but left her midsection exposed. Then she went to the accessories section and bought a few leg and waist pouches to carry the weapons and supplies that she intended to buy next, as well as sports tape and bandages, a mask much like the one Kakashi wore only a deep purple color rather than black, and fingerless gloves. Next she moved onto the weapons and supplies section and she bought senbon, kunai, shuriken, a couple short swords, and a katana.

"You sure bought a lot… Didn't you have anything of your own before? You did say that you're a shinobi, right?" Kurenai inquired.

"I used to have things like these. I had to abandon a lot of them, or they were destroyed. I've also learned that it's faster and easier to travel light," Yuriko replied with a slight smile. "Now that I won't be traveling for a while, I'd like to rebuild my stock."

"Then how did you continue to train?"

"You don't always need weapons to be a competent shinobi," she stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

Kurenai paused, her head tilting slightly and her brow furrowing as she thought for a moment and chuckled a bit before she agreed as if she'd remembered or had been reminded of something. The kunoichi duo then left the store and Yuriko asked if they could stop by the hotel she was staying at to drop off the clothes that she'd bought before they continued on. She quickly changed into one of her new outfits—a fishnet undershirt, the purple mask that covered the lower half of her face from her nose and down, a half vest, shorts, and bandages around her ankles and wrists underneath her fingerless gloves and ninja sandals, the katana at her hip, her short swords in an "X" across her back, and her senbon, kunai, and shuriken in various pouches—and they made their way to the training grounds, Kakashi still following and watching from a distance. They didn't train very hard, just some light exercises that didn't require much chakra, and after a few hours the ladies were both tired and decided to stop to go to a late lunch.

After they'd had a comfortable lunch with light conversation about nothing important or personal, Kurenai left and Yuriko wandered the city, taking in the sights. Kakashi hadn't seen anything to warrant suspicion from this new arrival to the village aside from the fact that she had quite a bit of money for a wanderer to buy everything she'd just acquired. He wondered where she'd gotten it all but aside from that, she seemed normal enough.

At one point Yuriko had found herself in a book store for lack of anything else to do and in his pursuit, Kakashi had also decided to check it out to see if the newest addition to his favorite series had come in. As Yuriko was browsing one of the shelves, she'd caught sight of Kakashi and paused in the fingering of the books before her, staring at him. He had his nose buried in an orange book and was on his way out but he hesitated in his step upon seeing the young kunoichi. His visible eye was dark brown, almost black, and his expression seemed as though he recognized her, or that he knew something about her but didn't show much more than that if anything at all, she thought, before he returned to his book and left the book store. She watched after him for a moment before continuing to scan through the aisles and finding a fantasy book. She read the summary on the back and then turned to the first page, reading the first paragraph, as was her routine when it came to buying new books. It had been catching enough and it seemed interesting enough, so she bought it and started making her way back to her hotel room.

Kakashi followed her from a distance still, and watched as she prepared for a restful night in, curling up in the chair provided in the room with a cup of tea and her new book opened up to the first page. When she'd decided to call it a night after reading a few chapters, Kakashi also decided to make his way home. He was curious to see how she would fare against him in battle tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_A/N: Thanks to everyone who's reviewed! Animelover2015, Sweet Petit, and Caeleste, you guys rock. I think that's a record for me to get 3 within the first 48 hours of posting something. Also, since I have so many chapters already written and there have already been 50 views, I'm updating early since I'm not the only one who seems interested in this story. This chapter is a couple pages longer than the last and there's a tiny bit more action. I hope you enjoy it and please don't forget to review to let me know your thoughts. :) -Nira_

Chapter 2

Yuriko made her way to the Hokage's office in her full training outfit, not leaving any of her newly purchased weapons behind, unknowing of what may happen in this evaluation or whom her opponent would be, and as she walked, she took in the sights and sounds of the city as it was just beginning to become busy for the day. No matter where she looked, she couldn't see a single person who didn't have a smile on their face, and everyone seemed to know each other intimately, laughing and teasing each other despite it being such a large village. When she'd arrived at the Hokage's office, she was again escorted in by Genma and bowed upon entering the room.

"You're early, Yuriko," the Hokage stated.

"I prefer punctuality over tardiness, Hokage-sama."

"I see. I apologize, then, because your opponent is notorious for being tardy," he chuckled.

Yuriko looked at the clock that was hanging above the door and it was a minute until seven. Another ten minutes passed, Yuriko's irritation growing with each tick of the clock's hands before there was a knock at the door, announcing the arrival of her opponent. When the Hokage beckoned them to enter, the young male from the day before with the mask on and silver hair entered the room and bowed in respect and Yuriko mused again as to why he seemed so familiar for a brief moment before she glared at him. He was late. Very late.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Kakashi," the Hokage scolded.

"My apologies, Sandaime-sama. I was helping an old lady carry her groceries," he replied in a lazy sounding baritone with a smile creasing his visible eye and arm behind his head in nervousness.

"Very well. Now that we're all here, let's move to the training ground to begin."

The three of them walked to a large clearing in the village's surrounding forest in silence, Yuriko sneaking glances at her opponent and sizing him up, curious as to how this evaluation would go. As they drew nearer to the field, she could smell a source of water from somewhere nearby which could come in handy, she figured. They paused in the middle and the Hokage reminded the others that this was an evaluation meaning that they weren't allowed to kill each other, but they also weren't supposed to go easy on each other, either. Kakashi and Yuriko stood opposite each other and before they began, she offered out her hand.

"Let's have a good fight," she stated with a forced smile.

"Before we begin, may I ask a question?" he asked, shaking her hand. When the kunoichi didn't stop him, he went on to ask anyway. "Why are you wearing a mask now?"

Yuriko grinned and asked in turn with mischief in her eyes, "Why, indeed?"

Kakashi's visible eye narrowed in suspicion and the Hokage yelled for them to begin, so they both jumped back. Yuriko withdrew a kunai and charged at Kakashi, but he easily blocked her attack with his own kunai and countered with a kick to her ribs. She caught his leg and threw him up into the air before throwing a few kunai at him which he used a substitution to get away from. She looked around the clearing in an attempt to find him, reaching out with her chakra to feel for his but as she felt a presence below her, she jumped away as he burst through the ground, reaching for her foot like a zombie rising from the dead. When he'd missed, he charged at her, a kunai drawn again and Yuriko sighed. She could tell that he was using petty attacks and was quickly growing bored. She'd expected more from a jounin.

She drew her short swords from her back and focused her chakra into them to extend their range and uses into both close and long range weapons. She slashed at him with one, but even though her attack missed, she smirked as a slash formed in Kakashi's mask across his cheek that drew blood. His visible eye widened before it narrowed into a glare and he jumped back, pulling his headband up to reveal a red eye that Yuriko had only heard of in legends. It was a sharingan but it was obvious that he was not an Uchiha and it dawned on her that this was the notorious Kakashi Hatake known as the Copycat Ninja.

The platinum kunoichi had heard rumors about him everywhere she went as being ruthless on his missions and how nobody who ever fought him lived to tell the tale. Since he had the sharingan, though, she realized that she had to be careful not to get trapped in a genjutsu. Before Kakashi had a chance to think much, she attacked again, slashing in his direction, a gust of wind picking up after each slash and heading in his direction. He wasn't able to dodge them completely, but he managed to escape any major damage. He'd noticed that she'd gotten more serious as soon as she'd seen his sharingan and decided to step up his game as well, though she was more on the offensive than he was at the moment. She charged at him again, only one short sword drawn to free up her other hand, but this time he charged as well, creating hand signs as he ran toward her. He inhaled deeply and blew in her direction and as he did, she was bombarded by a fireball technique that shot small fireballs at her. She made a clone to take the damage while she fled and hid in a tree for a moment to regain her thoughts and strategize, also realizing that he'd changed tactics as well.

It wasn't long at all before Kakashi found her and they were engaged in blade-to-blade combat once again. To avoid making eye contact, Yuriko watched ehis body and how it moved to predict his next attack. She retreated back into the open space of the clearing, sheathing her other short sword, and as she ran she made hand signs to perform one of her bigger jutsu that combined both her wind and water affinities. She withdrew a handful of senbon and threw them at Kakashi and at the same time threw her chakra at him. In the attack, her wind and water combined to make flawless ice senbon that were so clear that they were practically invisible and the excess wind that wasn't used to freeze the water continued on as blades creating a trifecta of projectiles for Kakashi to deal with.

Yuriko watched, wondering how Kakashi would deal with it, and as she'd suspected he would, he used a fire technique, having had realized that she had an affinity for wind. She smirked as the two jutsu clashed. The heat from his fire melted her ice, but the wind from her jutsu increased the intensity of his fire. With her ice melted, though, it returned to water and continued on its path toward him with the regular senbon that she'd thrown, and to protect herself from the fire that was still barreling toward her, she lifted a wall of water in front of her.

A huge cloud of steam rose up as the fireball and water wall collided and Kakashi yelled out as Yuriko's attack continued on to hit him. Before the steam could clear, she felt the cold, sharp steel of a kunai at her throat and quickly inhaled in surprise.

"You're as good as the rumors say," she stated. "… though I didn't get to see the full extent of your sharingan that gained you the title as the Copycat Ninja, unfortunately. Is that how you figured it out so fast?"

"As soon as your jutsu and my fireball technique came in contact, I realized that yours was a combination of wind and water and made a clone to get one step ahead of you. That is all."

"Are you really one step ahead?" Yuriko inquired, a knowing grin on her lips.

The steam cleared away and the Hokage walked over from his spot at the edge of the clearing as spectator to see Kakashi's kunai to Yuriko's throat and Yuriko's kunai to Kakashi's ribs, aimed at his heart. Before they each lowered their weapons, Yuriko gently poked Kakashi with the kunai, letting him know that she wasn't unprepared for his counter to her attack and Kakashi's eyes widened as they darted to the kunai he hadn't expected to be there.

"Well done, Yuriko. You managed to stay on par with one of Konoha's top shinobi, and from the looks of it, this fight could continue for quite some time. That is no easy feat," the elder man smiled. "For that, I am giving you a choice. You mentioned before that you grow weary of war and travel, and you have experienced a great deal of darkness and sorrow in your days, however those experiences would make you a prime candidate to be a member of Konoha's elite ANBU forces. You would report and take orders from only your team captain and me and I will admit that it is not a pleasant job, but it is indeed a necessary one for the good of the village.

"Your other option is to be a jounin. After a bit of testing and training I would assign you as a captain to a three man squad and you would go on missions with that squad. The nature of your missions as a jounin would be much less taxing, emotionally, than those of ANBU missions, but you would be closer to that sense of peace that you are searching for. I will give you seven d—"

"In which position would I be protecting the peace of this village more actively?" Yuriko inquired, cutting the elder man off before he could finish his sentence, and Kakashi raised his eyebrow in intrigue. "I don't think I could be satisfied with such an easy life after what I've been through. I don't do well with simple work… I think too much."

"ANBU would probably suit your tastes better, then. It will not be an easy position to be in, however."

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama, anything worth doing is never easy. I swear I will do what I must to serve you for the sake of this village," Yuriko stated, taking a knee and bowed her head in sincerity and submission.

"Why choose such extremes?"

She was silent for a moment as a wave of melancholy washed over her as she thought about it and Kakashi noticed the change in her demeanor before she finally spoke up; "Because… I want this place to feel like a home… I haven't had one for a very long time… People protect their homes at all costs… don't they?"

There was a short moment of silence between the three of them as the Hokage smiled and Kakashi softened his expression.

"Kakashi, I am placing Yuriko under your care. I believe she may grow to be a benefit to your team. We will indoctrinate her first thing tomorrow morning," the Hokage stated and Yuriko looked up at Kakashi in shock. She'd just fought one of Konoha's elite ANBU captains who was known throughout all of the shinobi nations as a ruthless killer and was able to fight with him as an equal. Her ego was stoked, but she quickly quelled it. Maybe it wasn't such a good thing to be so evenly matched with such a notorious shinobi.

"Understood."

"Now the question is where to put you?" Hokage-sama mused. "Kakashi, is the apartment next to yours still empty?"

"As far as I'm aware, yes," Kakashi stated.

"Then it's settled. Yuriko, you will move into that apartment starting immediately. Your first three month's rent will be waived until you can get on your feet."

Yuriko beamed in pride, a slight smile, though hidden, radiating from beneath her mask. "Understood."

The two shinobi followed the Hokage back to his office where he filled out some paperwork and had another shinobi assistant get the key to Yuriko's new apartment from the landlord. Once she'd signed the lease and received the key, Kakashi followed her to the hotel so she could gather her belongings and check out, his face buried in his little orange book that she'd recognized as the same one she'd seen him reading the night before as they walked. With not having many belongings to begin with, it was a short trip and she was soon following him to an apartment complex. He lived on the third floor and when they'd reached his apartment, he pointed next door showing her which one was hers.

Yuriko bowed in thanks and unlocked the door, walking into a small, dismal little apartment. The air was stuffy as if the apartment had been unused for months. It was extremely plain with a small kitchen that had a small round table and two chairs in it to the left, and a slightly larger living room with only a couch, a small coffee table, and an end table straight ahead that were visible as soon as you walked in. She also noticed a sliding door that led to a tiny balcony on the far side of the living room.

Yuriko decided to keep her shoes on as she walked deeper into the apartment, unsure of how clean the floor was. To the right a short hallway led to a small bathroom on the right and the bedroom to the left that was about as large as the living room. There was a queen sized bed on the far wall under a large window, a walk-in closet about two thirds the size of the bathroom, and a desk with a simple lamp and chair opposite the bed. She sighed, not looking forward to the work ahead of her to make the place habitable, and set her few belongings on the bare mattress before opening all of the windows and walking next door to be the annoying neighbor that asked to borrow things. Kakashi answered shortly after and raised his eyebrow upon seeing her, wondering what she might want.

"Sorry to bother you. You wouldn't happen to have any cleaning supplies I could borrow, would you? Or know where I could buy some?" she inquired, her tone monotonous as if she really didn't care if she was bothering him or not.

"Uh… sure. I'll show you."

"I appreciate it."

The two left to find a general store and along the way, they walked in comfortable silence until Kakashi spoke up. "You never did answer my question."

She remembered what question he was referring to. "As to why I wear a mask now when you first saw me without one?"

"Yes."

"Maybe I'm trying to hide something..?" Yuriko wondered aloud to herself and Kakashi looked at her, perplexed, noticing that her tone had been questioning as if she didn't really know the answer, herself. "I feel a little more comfortable wearing it than not. It's harder to betray your emotions when people can't see your expression."

Yuriko felt Kakashi's eyes on her so she looked up at him, making eye contact briefly as if accusing him of also trying to hide something and continuing on. When they'd reached the store, she bought everything she needed from cleaning supplies to towels and linens, curtains, toiletries, kitchen supplies and dishes, and minor decorations like a vase and artificial flowers for her living room to make her dismal apartment a bit more welcoming and personalized. Kakashi offered to carry some of the bags for her since they were going to the same place, anyway, and when she opened her door again, she thanked him again before making a couple clones to help her clean the entirety of the place in a timely manner.

Even with help from her clones, it was hours before the apartment was spotless and smelled of cleaning supplies. Yuriko left again to find a clothing store to have civilian clothes as well as training clothes in her wardrobe and bought a week's worth of outfits as well as undergarments and sleepwear. When she returned home again, she showered and dressed in a plum sun dress with a white sash tied around her waist and white sandals with the purple mask over her face again and her long, silver hair tied into a high ponytail and braided. Just as she was opening the door to leave again, she came face to face with Kakashi with his fist raised to knock. They paused and stared at each other for a moment in awkward silence.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Oh… I was just coming over to check on you and see how you like the new apartment," he stated.

"I'm done cleaning and I like it a bit more now that it's more personalized," she stated, opening the door wider to allow him a peek inside.

"I see… Well, sorry to bother you. You seemed busy."

Kakashi turned to leave but paused when Yuriko spoke up.

"Would you like to come with me? I was just going out to get something to eat but I'm not sure what's good around here. Something cheap but filling would be great."

"How do you like ramen?" he suggested after a moment of thought and she nodded with a grateful smile.

Just like before, the two walked in silence, neither seeming to mind the presence of the other as they just walked together, Kakashi absorbed in his orange book again. They'd reached a ramen shop called "Ichiraku" and were greeted upon entering the little hut as they took a seat at the counter. After briefly looking over the menu Yuriko decided on the barbecue pork with extra vegetables and Kakashi ordered the same with extra meat instead of vegetables. When they'd finished eating, Yuriko started to pull out her wallet to pay for her portion but was stopped by Kakashi.

"It's on me this time," he stated with a smile.

"This time? You say it like it's going to be a common occurrence, us eating together."

He simply smiled neither confirming nor denying her statement, though her comment had piqued his interest at how quickly and wittily she'd said it. It was almost flirtatious, he thought, but he was still not quite comfortable with her enough to give anything away. After he'd paid, they walked back to the apartment together again.

"Hey, Kakashi-senpai?" Yuriko asked after a while.

"Hm?"

"Why do _you_ wear a mask all the time?"

He was quiet for a while, thinking about it before he just looked at her with an emotionless smile. "Why, indeed?"


	3. Chapter 3

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_Thanks, everyone for the support! I'm so glad to see that this story is going so well already. Six reviews, six favorites, six alerts, and 150 views for only 2 chapters in less than a week is an amazing accomplishment for me and I'm so excited that you all like this enough to keep up with me. It really does mean a lot to me, especially after going through a long 2 year streak of writers' block and lack of motivation/ inspiration. Please continue to be the awesome fans that you are and I'll continue to give you an (hopefully) awesome story! Enjoy the next installation! It's even longer than the last one (eight pages). I'll try to keep them at an even six pages per chapter starting in chapter 4. Anyway, please don't forget to review and let me know what you think. Thanks, and you rock! :) -Nira_

Chapter 3

Yuriko stood at the front of a dark room lit only by torches dressed in her training gear with about 100 other members who had removed their masks and were kneeling to the Hokage who stood beside her. It was a secret room hidden by a concealed door in the Hokage tower that apparently only the ANBU, Hokage, and one of the Hokage's advisors who was in charge of an even more top secret group of elites called NERVE knew about. She'd received her Konoha headband from the Hokage and picked a mask, a fox with gold-outlined purple swirls dividing the mask in half diagonally, prior to the meeting and now he was introducing her to the team.

"I would like you all to welcome our newest member Yuriko Kobayashi. I expect that you'll all treat her well starting today and show her the ropes. She has proven to be extremely skilled, almost on par with Kakashi, and since they have already fought and gotten to know each other a bit, I am assigning her to Team Ro."

"I will do my best," Yuriko stated with a courteous bow.

When the Hokage dismissed everyone, she followed Kakashi to the locker room where he showed her where she would be keeping her supplies and where they would meet to brief before departing on each mission. Her locker was across from his and as he was showing her around, a man with large dark eyes and short, spikey brown hair came over to introduce his self.

"Hello. I am Yamato and I am your other team member. I look forward to working with you, Kobayashi-san," he smiled.

"It's nice to meet you," Yuriko bowed in return. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to train with the both of you at some point soon so that we may get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses to better utilize them in battle."

"I agree that would be a good idea. I don't have any plans for today. What do you say, senpai?" Yamato inquired.

"Let's talk first. We don't need to spill everything to each other about our pasts, but as much as we're comfortable telling would be good. Yamato and I have been working together for a long time, but I think it would be beneficial for all of us to start building trust. We can start training tomorrow," Kakashi stated.

"Understandable. Where can we go to have this soul-bearing conversation?" Yuriko's tone of voice was sarcastic as she was already not looking forward to it.

The trio agreed to meet at Yuriko's house by 10 o'clock to give her time to go grocery shopping, not wanting to be rude and invite guests over but not be able to provide snack and beverages. She supposed it would double as a house warming party, so she was glad she'd cleaned everything and made her apartment livable literally the day before. When she'd gone shopping, she'd bought everything she thought she might need or want and then some and ended up spending hundreds on food that would probably only last her a couple weeks for the most part, she thought, but she figured it was worth it to spend practically the last of her money on food.

When she'd gotten home, it took her about 15 minutes to put all of the food away and immediately afterward, she changed into a yellow sun dress with white daisies along the bottom and replaced her mask with a purple scarf around her neck, still keeping her face hidden. She also donned a light blue apron with light purple butterflies embroidered on it before grabbing ingredients and beginning to prepare vegetables and eggs and bacon and a pot of vanilla and lavender tea. Shortly after she finished cooking there was a knock at the door. Looking at the clock, she wasn't surprised that it was already a quarter past 10 and she was glad that she'd had the forethought to put cooking off until the last second, knowing that they'd be late with Kakashi's reputation. She answered the door and forced a smile despite her irritation at their tardiness.

"Sorry we're late," Yamato chuckled nervously. "Senpai was too interested in his book and was a lot more relaxed than I thought he should be despite the time. I didn't realize you were neighbors."

"Don't worry about it. Please make yourselves comfortable," Yuriko forced an even wider smile and disappeared into the kitchen to make the plates.

"You cleaned this place up well. It seems… warmer, now," Kakashi stated, looking around and admiring her simplistic taste in decorations, completely ignoring the fact that Yamato had thrown him under the bus about why they were late, or even that they were late at all.

"Thank you. It was a task to say the least," she stated, plating the last omelet and walking with three plates perfectly balanced in one hand and along her arm to the living room and silverware in her other hand. She set everything down on the coffee table with the skill and grace of a trained waitress before walking back into the kitchen for the tea and teacups. "I hope it's not too bland. If you need anything, just let me know."

"Thank you very much. It's been a long time since I've had a home cooked meal," Yamato smiled, taking a bite.

"So, who would like to go first?" Yuriko inquired as she sat on the floor opposite the men who sat on the cough.

When she'd gotten comfortable in a cross-legged position, she hesitated a moment about whether or not to lower the scarf and eat, or to wait until they'd both left since the topic of conversation was not going to be a pleasant one and she wasn't looking forward to bearing everything to these strangers, even if unintentionally through her facial expressions. Her growling stomach won the internal struggle, so she reluctantly pulled the fabric down and began eating, making a point not to look at or make eye contact with her teammates.

"Seeing as I've finished, already, I suppose I will," Kakashi stated and Yuriko wondered how he'd eaten the whole plate so quickly and still managed to keep his mask on, and then she wondered what he actually looked like underneath it but she quickly pushed the thought aside as he started talking. "I was very strict on following the rules after the death of my father for a very long time. In my eyes, anyone who disobeyed the rules was scum, regardless of the situation. On a mission, though, during the Third Great War, I was captain of my team and everything that could go wrong did. I was faced with the decision to either abandon the mission to save my comrades, or abandon my comrades to accomplish the mission. I chose to abort the mission…"

He trailed off then, and Yuriko finally looked up from her plate to observe him, feeling a change in the atmosphere of the room. She watched the cloudiness of guilt and sorrow shadow his visible eye and the critical and questioning gaze she'd intended to give him for both starting and stopping in the middle of the story and obviously being extremely selective about what he said, softened and fell. Seeing just his one visible eye was more than enough of an expression for her to know then that the outcome of his mission had not been good and she contented herself with that little bit of knowledge and pushed it out of her mind to ask for more details. She made a mental note to keep an eye out for him as a comrade who had seen the darker side of war and come out of it badly scarred just as she had and be the listening ear if ever he needed one. After a pause and coming to the conclusion that Kakashi had finished sharing what he was comfortable sharing, Yamato began his story.

"I was an experiment for a crazed man who strove to know and possess every jutsu there is, especially forbidden ones. In his attempt to gain that knowledge, he often kidnapped children from villages and used them as test subjects, and I was one of those children, though I don't remember where I came from or how old I was. He had been implanting those children with the cells of the forefather of Konoha in order to create an impressionable child who could be taught and used as a weapon with the chakra affinity for wood. Before he'd succeeded, however, he'd been forced to abandon his experiments and I was almost left for dead despite being a successful experiment until Danzo-sama found me. I am a prior NERVE shinobi but after a failed mission, I resigned my position with the help of Sandaime Hokage-sama and Kakashi-senpai and I came to work in the ANBU instead," Yamato explained.

Yuriko sighed, realizing that it was her turn and paused, thinking about what she wanted to tell them that wouldn't be too much. Before she began, she took a long swig of her now cooled tea, pulled her scarf back over her nose and started. Kakashi noticed that her bright personality clouded over as soon as she'd re-covered her face and her eyes lost a bit of their life and luster as she spoke. He knew that look, having had just made the same expression, so he knew that her story would be painful as well.

"I'm from a small, unnamed village in the Land of Snow. We weren't much of a village, more like a collection of people with nowhere else to go, but we all got along and were friendly enough. My parents had been shinobi but they deserted and left the Land of Water to move north, dissatisfied with the way the Mizukage was running things. Growing up, they taught me ninjutsu and taijutsu in secret, knowing that the world was still in turmoil and wanting me to be able to defend myself if need be. After the war broke out, many small villages were pillaged and destroyed… Mine was no different."

It went silent. The echoes of the screams of her village and the children crying haunted Yuriko, chilling her to the bone despite the warmth of her tea still clasped between her hands. She could hear fire roaring as it consumed homes and the wails of torturous agony as people were buried under the raging wreckage, their houses collapsing on top of them burning them alive. They were her neighbors, her friends, her family. And the laughter of the invading shinobi… the wicked, sinister cackling amongst the despair as if they were demons raised from hell with the sole purpose of causing chaos and destruction. And her mom…

Kakashi watched as the life slowly faded more and more from Yuriko's expression as if she was reliving whatever it was that had happened in her past to cause her such pain and her hands gripped tighter around her teacup, trembling.

"Yuriko… Yuriko, come back to us," Kakashi cooed and Yuriko blinked, looking up at him flatly from her spot on the floor. "Welcome back," he smiled empathetically beneath the mask as her eyes refocused and slowly regained their lively luster.

She quickly changed the subject, burying her face deeper into her scarf and asking if they wanted more tea as she stood up and gathered the dirty dishes in an attempt to hide the tears that threatened to spill over her eye lids and Kakashi felt his heart wrench for her.

"Would you like any help with those?" Yamato asked as he noticed the dishes clattering in her trembling grasp.

"No, it's okay. You're my guests. How was the food, by the way?" she probed, forcing strength into her voice and pushing the sobs back down into her chest.

"It was delicious, thank you."

Yamato watched, having had witnessed the whole ordeal himself, and feeling a pang at his heart for her. He noticed how heavy the atmosphere had gotten and was trying to lighten the mood by helping her to change the subject.

"I'm glad," Yuriko forced a smile that would have been genuine if her mind hadn't been preoccupied with less pleasant matters and took the dishes into the kitchen. She took a moment to run some dish water and place the dirty dishes in it, allowing herself the time to recompose and dry her tears before readjusting her scarf over her nose and mouth and bringing the still hot teapot out to refill her guests' cups. "So, Yamato-senpai, you have an affinity for wood chakra, correct?"

"Yes," Yamato confirmed.

"And Kakashi-senpai, since you have the sharingan you are able to copy almost any ninjutsu, correct?"

"Correct."

"Do you have an affinity for fire or was it a copied jutsu?"

"A little bit of both," he stated, pointing to his covered sharingan. "My own affinity is lightning."

"I see why Sandaime-sama put me in a team with you, then. My water can amplify your lightning and my wind can amplify your fire."

"That would be beneficial… We'll have to train together a lot to get it right, though."

"The sooner we start, the better. We never know when we'll get a mission with there still being animosity among the nations after the war. It's best to be prepared before we're thrust into a situation and have to figure it out on the fly."

"Very well. We'll meet at the training grounds tomorrow morning at six o'clock sharp. Expect it to be a long day."

Yuriko nodded in agreement, but she realized that she was really struggling to squash her emotions. She couldn't quite shake the memories, so she decided that it'd be better to be alone and attempted to politely kick her teammates out; "Well, I'm sure you're busy so I won't keep you any longer. Thank you for being my first guests."

"It was our pleasure. Thank you for being a great hostess," Yamato smiled, taking the hint that she wanted them to leave. He could see that she was struggling to remain in control of her emotions. "If you need anything, let me know."

"Thank you. See you tomorrow, senpai."

She walked them to the door and when they'd both left, Yuriko sighed and leaned against the door for a moment, biting her lip and clenching her fists until her nails dug into her skin and drew blood. When she'd calmed down, she made her way to the kitchen to do her dishes. She didn't have anything else to do after finishing them and it was only midday, so she decided to go for a walk around the village again to clear her head and become more familiar with it and Kakashi followed from further away, still under orders to keep an eye on her.

She found herself standing at the bottom of the cliff that had the faces of the Hokage carved into it looking up at it. She closely examined each of the stern stone faces and paused on the third's carving. There were splashes of brightly colored paint vandalizing its surface turning the stern expression of the elder man into something that couldn't be taken seriously no matter how hard you tried. She stared at it perplexed for a moment before she cracked a smile that quickly grew into raucous laughter and Kakashi was taken by the surprising outburst.

The sound of someone running and being chased caught the attention of both shinobi and Yuriko turned in the direction of the sounds, seeing a young boy with wild blonde hair and big, bright blue eyes dressed in a bright orange jump suit running toward her with an open can of paint grasped in one hand. Kakashi instantly recognized the child as the orphaned son of the fourth Hokage and watched, interested to see how Yuriko would interact with him.

She smiled, instantly realizing that he was the culprit who had defaced the monument, but she whistled to catch his attention and motioned him over. He was quite a bit further ahead of whoever was chasing him so it would be easy for her to distract his pursuers with a clone. He glanced at her suspiciously but when the voices of the people chasing him got louder, he picked up his speed and followed her into an alleyway and Kakashi followed from the rooftops. She quickly made a clone of the kid and sent it running while she took the real kid down a different road, a huge smile on her face and determination and mischief in her eyes as she shielded him from view with her own body. When his pursuers took the bait and followed the clone, she relaxed a bit and looked down at him and Kakashi observed from the next building, crouched to remain out of sight.

"You shouldn't do that, you know," Yuriko stated and the child pouted and looked away, crossing his arms.

"Then why did you help me?"

"Because it's funny," she chuckled. "It's been a while since I've laughed like that. Thanks."

"Who are you?" the boy asked, eyeing her suspiciously again.

"You can call me Yuriko. What's your name?"

"Naruto Uzumaki…"

"It's nice to meet you, Naruto-kun. I'd be a bad role model if I didn't do something about that, though, so let's go clean it up, 'kay?"

"What?" he asked perplexed.

"Let's you and me go clean it up together. As funny as it was, I don't think Sandaime-sama would be very happy with me if I let you get away with it, especially since I just became a citizen of Konoha. If anyone else had caught you they would have made you clean it all by yourself."

Naruto grumbled, but nodded in understanding and the two of them started making their way back to the scene of the crime. Yuriko noticed that he kept looking up at her as if she was an anomaly of some sort and she could see all of the questions running through his head. He was quite expressive even when he didn't say anything, but eventually the curiosity got the better of him and he blurt out the first question that was then followed by a string of them.

"You're really confusing, you know that, lady?! First you laugh and say that it's funny that I painted the old man's face and help me get away from my stupid sensei, and then you turn around and make me clean it up but you said you're going to help me with that too! Why do you even care if you're new to Konoha?! And everybody else ignores me or looks at me like I'm some kind of monster so why are you so nice?!" he demanded, his voice trailing off at the last question and Yuriko paused as she could hear the sadness and rejection ringing clear in the feebleness of it and a tender grin graced her lips.

"Because when I look at you I see a kid who just wants to be noticed by someone," she stated, remembering when she'd been that kid doing stupid things to get any kind of attention. It didn't matter if it was trouble or something good. It was just nice being seen and acknowledged and it hadn't been that long ago that that had been her reality. "And like I said earlier, it had been a long time since I'd laughed so I wanted to take some of the slack off of you knowing that it would have been worse if someone else had caught you as a thank you."

Kakashi smirked and took his leave to report his observations to the Hokage and left Yuriko to her own devices. The rest of the walk to the monument was in silence between Yuriko and the young misfit. Despite him being younger than her, Yuriko could feel that they had a strong connection. She'd understood him and his intentions and he'd been able to sense a small glimmer of her own childhood pain through their brief but heartfelt conversation. When they got to the monument he dumped his paint and cleaned the tin before filling it with clean water. He rappelled down the face using some rope that he'd brought with him and Yuriko used chakra concentrated in her feet and a simple water jutsu and they began scrubbing.

When they'd finished a few hours had gone by and they were covered in paint and their arms were sore from scrubbing so much. Yuriko sighed and wiped the sweat from her brow and when she heard a loud rumbling sound, she was startled from the comfortable silence they'd been in. She looked over to Naruto to see him blushing beet red and holding his stomach so she laughed.

"I'm hungry too. What do you want to eat? I don't have much money, but I'll treat if it's something cheap."

"You mean it?!" Naruto beamed, obviously excited.

She nodded and he punched the air in his excitement. The duo packed up what we were doing and Naruto told her about his love for ramen as they walked through the street and the scenery looked familiar to Yuriko. When they'd reached their destination, a grin came to her face as she recognized the little ramen shop that Kakashi had taken her to just the day before.

"Hey, Naruto-kun, how old are you?" she asked out of curiosity as they sat at the counter and both ordered the barbecue pork ramen.

"Eleven. Why?"

"Just asking. How old do you think I am?"

"I don't know, eighteen?"

"I'm flattered. I'm twenty three," she smiled, taking it as a compliment that he thought she was younger.

"You're a shinobi, right? You've gotta be since you made that clone and were using jutsu to clean the monument with me. I bet you're pretty high ranking, too."

"What makes you say that?"

"You made your techniques look so easy. You didn't even have to try!"

"I've been training for a long time now with a lot of different people. It wasn't always easy. Are you attending the academy?"

"You better believe it! I'm gonna be Hokage one day and it'll be my face you see up there on the mountain!"

Yuriko smiled wider under her scarf and placed her hand on his head, ruffling his hair a bit. "I like you, Naruto-kun. I'm sure you'll make a fine Hokage one day."

"Do you really think so?"

Yuriko nodded and she saw the pride and emotion swell up in him as he got teary-eyed though the wide smile never left his face. She paid for their meal when they'd finished eating and before they parted to go their separate ways, she waved to Naruto and told him not to get into too much trouble and that she'd see him around. Yuriko couldn't help but to notice the strange stares she'd gotten upon saying it and the whispered conversations that it brought up but brushed it off as she made her way back to her apartment.

She took a shower and dressed in a violet silk night gown before making a cup of tea and walking out onto her balcony with the book she'd bought the other day. She read a single chapter before closing it and looked up at the starry sky. It was a warm, clear night and she smiled wondering how her next day would play its self out before locking up and going to bed.


	4. Chapter 4

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_Hey, everyone, welcome back! Thanks so much for sticking with me. I've gotten a couple pieces of good constructive criticism so I'll try to work on the points that were brought up, starting in this chapter. Hopefully it helps or it's better or makes the story more interesting or… something. XD Anyway, here's the newest chapter in which Team Ro gets their first mission together. I hope you enjoy it and that I'll see you again in the next chapter. :) -Nira_

Chapter 4

Yuriko arrived at the training grounds fifteen minutes early and was surprised to see the Hokage standing alone in the clearing looking up at the clouds that were still tinged pale orange and pink from the sunrise in the distance. When he heard her approaching him, he turned to face her and she bowed in respect.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama," she greeted. "What brings you here this morning?"

"Good morning, Yuriko. How are you acclimating to the village?" he inquired in response.

"Very well, thank you. There isn't anything wrong that's brought you out so early is there?"

"No, no, of course not," he chuckled. "This is a good place to come to think at this time. There usually aren't people training this early. Have you com alone?"

"Yes, but Kakashi-senpai and Yamato-senpai will be here soon."

"I see. I'm glad to hear it," the old man smiled with a sigh and nodding his head in approval before turning to face the sunrise again. "There's a rumor going around that you've met our Naruto yesterday."

"Yes, I did and he's quite the character. Is there something I should know about him? While I was spending time with him yesterday I received quite a few strange glances and became the subject of many a whispered conversation. He was confused as to why I was so kind to him, too. It seems rather strange to me that a child would act that way."

"Naruto is a product of an extremely difficult time in Konoha's not so distant history. Many villagers still hold a grudge though it was not the boy's fault. He's experienced quite a bit of strife for it so I'm not surprised that he was suspicious of your treatment toward him when all he's had growing up was the opposite."

"I see… He's a good kid. He's only looking to be acknowledged by someone. He just does stupid things to get it."

"Like paint the Hokages' faces…" The elder man's gaze was accusing though not scolding as he turned his head in her direction, a slight smirk gracing his thin lips.

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama, it was funny," Yuriko giggled, picturing the vandalism again. "I made him clean it up, though, I swear."

"You should have made him do it all himself… Train hard, Yuriko."

With that and a smile on his face the elder man walked away leaving Yuriko with a slight grin of her own beneath her violet mask while she waited for her teammates to arrive. She sighed and lay down in the still dewy grass, ignoring the coolness that seeped into her shorts and was directly in contact with the skin of her back through the fishnet undershirt. While she waited, she closed her eyes and simply took in the scents and sounds around her.

The air was crisp and fresh, making Yuriko's nose tingle with the sharpness of it, but the muddy richness of the ground below her was warm and inviting, both muting and complementing the bite of the cool air. The birds were awake and twittering away, as if having incessant conversations about whatever it was that birds talked about. Perhaps they were conversing like old ladies gossiping over tea about where to find the fattest, juiciest worms for breakfast since the ground was still soft, or maybe it was couples bickering about what materials to build the nest with or who was supposed to be watching the chicks while the other went searching for food, Yuriko mused.

The cartoonish image that came to mind of brightly colored birds in lace and ribbons sitting around a tiny table in tiny chairs made of twigs sipping from acorn teacups, gossiping about their husbands, chicks, and everyday life in general made her giggle to herself. It wasn't long before Yamato showed up and stood over her with a smile, though, snapping her out of her daydreams of gossiping bird cartoons.

"Good morning. You look comfortable," he stated.

"Oddly enough, I am," she smirked in response. "Kakashi-senpai isn't here yet, though I figured he'd be late… I wonder if I should have knocked on his door as I was leaving…"

"Yes, it's a bit of a problem of his. He'll show up eventually."

It was another twenty minutes before Kakashi actually arrived. Never before had someone irritated Yuriko to the extent that Kakashi had been since they'd first met. Each time they'd met, he was later and later and she wondered if he did it to spite her.

"You're late, senpai," she growled.

"My apologies. I was lost on the path of life. Now that I'm here, shall we begin?" he responded, his carefree demeanor pissing her off even more that he obviously didn't care that he was wasting everyone's time in his tardiness, but she bit her tongue, though the venom was still present in her vicious glare.

They decided to do two on one combat starting with the males against Yuriko. Knowing that this training session would last all day, as Kakashi had mentioned the day before, Yuriko was conservative of her chakra and didn't put her all into the battles, opting instead, to observe and fight defensively rather than offensively. She calculated and observed everything, decoding each of their strengths and weaknesses separately and together, how they moved, their dominant stances and hands, how they interacted with each other and worked together in battle.

She'd noted that Kakashi was analytical and strategic, always thinking one step ahead of his opponent and Yamato was cautious but fought by trial and error. When it had switched to Kakashi and Yuriko both fighting against Yamato, the platinum haired shinobi duo worked very well together. Yuriko was able to predict Kakashi's thoughts and strategies through his body movement and adapt her own attacks to fit and correlate with his. Just as she'd predicted, their chakra affinities were perfectly matched, especially with their ability to match chakra levels to create intensely powerful techniques. Yamato's wood didn't stand a chance against their fire and wind. When they had finally switched to Yamato and Yuriko against Kakashi, Yamato and Yuriko were good at working together to act as a decoy for the other to land a decent attack on Kakashi seeing as their affinities didn't match at all.

By the time the trio had called it quits, it was already beginning to get dark and they'd been training non-stop. They were exhausted and starving, all three of them beaten and battered. It had been a good training session all-in-all and when they'd finished, they all sat in the grass, panting and attempting to catch their breath.

"You are well rounded and adapt to situations quite well, Yuriko," Kakashi stated. "You will have no problem fitting into our team dynamics."

"Thank you, senpai. I look forward to working with the both of you."

Kakashi and Yuriko bid Yamato farewell and the two of them walked home together. When they'd reached his apartment, Yuriko continued on to her own apartment without a word of parting or even a glance toward Kakashi who had paused at his door to bid her a good evening. She had given him the cold shoulder and it hadn't gone unnoticed to the ANBU captain, but he brushed it off and made his way inside. When Yuriko had gotten into her own apartment, she took a shower and set the kettle on the stove to make tea while she started preparing dinner for herself.

After dinner, Yuriko walked onto her balcony with a cup of tea and her book and sat leaning comfortably against the banister, enjoying the warm summer breeze while she read. After a couple chapters, she closed her book with a sigh and turned to look out over the city. It was calm and quiet and only a few lights were on in other apartment complex windows and the sounds of crickets could be heard from all around as they orchestrated their arrhythmic symphony. She smiled, burying her face a little deeper into her scarf and thinking that she'd chosen her new home well before she looked up to the sky.

Kakashi had opened his balcony door, to let in a breeze and moonlight to read by while he relaxed on his couch in his loose pants, his mask pooled around his neck in case he had a surprise visitor and needed to cover up quickly and his nose buried in his favorite little orange book. He'd heard Yuriko open her balcony door as well and he could hear her turning the pages of her own book, so he assumed she'd stayed outside to read. At one point he heard her sigh and close her book and when he heard her voice, his attention was stolen from the words on the page with her first sentence.

"Can you see me from there in Heaven, Mom? I've found a new home again, but I'm hoping to stay this time. I think you would have liked it here, too. Everything you told me about it as a child is all true. The people are really nice and the atmosphere of the whole village reminds me of our little village despite this one being at least five times bigger.

"There's a kid here who reminds me a lot of myself when I was his age. He's a little rebel, to say the least," she chuckled, talking to the wind. "He painted the monument of the Hokages' faces and I couldn't help but to laugh and help him get out of trouble. It seemed like something Eiichi and I would have done. It had been a while since I'd laughed like that. The kid said he wants to be Hokage one day. He's a good kid, even if he is a bit eccentric, and I can't wait to see where his ambition takes him.

"My new teammates are something else… It seems there's a shortage of kunoichi in this village because both of them are male. Yamato-senpai seems decent enough, but I wonder about Kakashi-senpai. He doesn't say much and he'd always late. I suppose I don't say much, either, though…" Her voice trailed off and she leaned forward to rest her chin on her folded arms as a wave of melancholy rolled through her. "He's lost quite a bit over the years… He hasn't outright said it, but I can tell… His eyes say it all, even if only one is visible… I wonder if he's seen the same kind of hurt in mine…"

Kakashi's breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened as he looked to his balcony door as if he'd look directly into her own eyes if he did. Unknowing of her audience to her prayer to her mom, Yuriko sighed and was silent for a moment before she continued, "I miss you. It's still hard without you sometimes, and you'd think it would have gotten easier since becoming an adult, but it seems I still have a lot to learn about what it really means to be one. I'm trying, though. Are you proud of what I've accomplished so far?"

It was silent for a while until she bid the heavens good night and walked inside, locking her balcony door and turning off the lights, heading to bed to sleep through the lonely. Kakashi walked outside onto his own balcony, looking over at the darkness of Yuriko's door.

"You hide so well, Yuriko… how long have you been lying to the world that you're calloused and rough around the edges just to make it?" he mused, staring for a moment before returning to the warmth of his apartment and locking up for the night, himself.

* * *

Team Ro stood in the Hokage's office for a brief of their first mission together. There was a rogue group of ninja from the Stone Village that was planning on ambushing a Konoha jounin team on their way to the Stone with a peace treaty, and Team Ro's mission was to engage the rogue group and eliminate them, ensuring a successful mission for the jounin team. As they were leaving, the jounin team was coming in and Yuriko paused, recognizing Kurenai as one of the three along with a man with thick eyebrows and a bowl cut hairstyle clad in a green jumpsuit and a spikey black haired man with stubble and an unlit cigarette perched precariously between his lips.

"Oh, Yuriko!" Kurenai smiled. "I see that you're official now. Congratulations."

"Thank you."

"Are you on your way out for your first mission, then?"

Yuriko nodded and gestured toward Kakashi and Yamato. "These are my new teammates. They're both quite skilled, so I'm eager to see how we work together in a real combat situation."

"Kakashi and Yamato? Then that means…" Kurenai stated, her eyes widening slightly and Kakashi beckoned Yuriko from a little farther down the hall.

"I have to go. Good luck on your mission," Yuriko smiled before running after her teammates, leaving the trio of jounin in shock.

"Who was that?" the man in green, Guy, asked.

"That's Yuriko. She's new to the village and asked to become a Konoha shinobi, so I helped her get some supplies and trained with her a bit before she had an evaluation to see where she'd be placed."

"She's only just gotten here and she's already joined Kakashi and Yamato? Hmm…" Asuma, the other man mused around his cigarette.

Yuriko and her team prepared their weapons and supplies and once they'd gathered all of their necessities, they made their way to the village gates.

"We're leaving before the jounin team, but we will wait until they've reached their destination before we make our move against the rogues. It'll be a long mission, but remain vigilant. We will discuss tactics and strategies when we get closer to the rendezvous point," Kakashi ordered and the others nodded in understanding.

The three of them lowered their masks and took off. It would take them days to reach their rendezvous point but they weren't in a huge rush, seeing as the jounin team was still behind them and they stopped and set up camp for the night, knowing that the other team would be doing the same. While Yamato gathered wood for a small fire, Yuriko laid out sleeping bags and prepared to make dinner and Kakashi pored over maps, checking their coordinates and location to assure that they were on the right path.

When Yamato had returned and started the fire, Yuriko prepared a simple meal of ramen with dried squid and vegetables and while they ate they decided who would take which watch shift, starting with Yamato. When they'd finished eating, Yamato jumped to a tree to start his shift and Yuriko crawled into her sleeping bag, getting comfortable and looking up at the forest canopy before she closed her eyes with a sigh and began humming a song to herself that her mom used to sing to her to help her sleep when she was a child. It wasn't long until she'd successfully lulled herself to sleep and Kakashi looked over at her when she'd gone silent, watching her chest rise and fall with each deep breath that she took before he too allowed himself to sleep.

Yuriko was the next to take watch, so when she awoke to trade with Yamato a few hours later she yawned and stretched, crawling out of the warmth of her sleeping bag. When she stood, she walked by Kakashi who was still asleep in his own sleeping bag and paused. His eyes darted to and fro behind his lids and his expression was tense and looked pained and his breathing was uneven.

Kakashi had been having a nightmare—the same one he had every night about when he'd killed Rin—but it slowly faded into a tender lullaby this time. The tune sounded familiar, and as he focused on it more, he recognized the tune as the one Yuriko had hummed to herself just earlier that night. He also felt a soft fingertip stroking between his eye brows that he hadn't realized until then were very tense. When she'd finished her song, Kakashi had relaxed, he'd recognized, and when he heard her stand and start walking away, he lazily opened his eye to watch her go, shocked that she'd stopped just to calm him but thankful nonetheless before he dozed back off into a dreamless sleep.

Yuriko had crouched down beside the slumbering Kakashi and wondered what he could have been dreaming about to make him seem so uncomfortable. She knew that expression, though, having had suffered from nightmares, herself, and her expression darkened to empathetic understanding and tenderness. She wasn't sure if it'd help, but her mom would often hum her lullaby and rub away the tension if Yuriko had been having a nightmare, so she'd decided to try it on Kakashi. When she'd seen him visibly relax and heard his breathing even out again, she couldn't help but to grin before taking her leave and jumping to relieve Yamato of the watch.

"You've done well, senpai. Thanks for standing guard. I can take it from here," she whispered.

Yamato nodded with a yawn and jumped down, preparing for sleep. Before he'd gotten comfortable, he looked back up at Yuriko and then over to Kakashi who was now sleeping restfully before smiling to himself, and falling asleep. He'd watched her stop just to soothe Kakashi's tension, but he hadn't been able to see her expression. Either way, it was cute that she'd done anything to help him sleep better at all, he thought. Yuriko waited a few minutes, watching from the corner of her eye until she was positive that Yamato was asleep before she started talking to her mom. She'd done it every night since she had lost her. It helped her to cope when she was feeling lonely or unsure of herself. Usually she would have written to her, but she'd lost or had to abandon so many journals now that it was better to just talk. It made Yuriko feel a bit closer to her to talk anyway. Yuriko's shift ended a couple hours later and Kakashi awoke to take the final shift before they set out again.

"Work hard, senpai," Yuriko yawned as she waved and he took her spot on the bough of the tree they'd been using as their watch standing perch.

"Yuriko," Kakashi called out before she jumped to the ground, so she turned to look at him. "Thank you…"

"For what?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Nothing. Sleep well."


	5. Chapter 5

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_Thanks, everyone for your support and continued interest, and special thanks to everyone who has reviewed with constructive criticism, good points about the story, etc. I'm hoping that the story continues to hold your interest and that it'll maybe start to pick up a bit more, both in plotline as well as a start to maybe a little formation of a bond between Yuriko and Kakashi. Please enjoy this latest update and continue to let me know what you think, good or bad about the story (but don't write flames. I'm very blunt and have little shame in telling someone off so flamers, you have been warned). –Nira _

Chapter 5

The ANBU team had finally reached their rendezvous point and staked out the surroundings before taking the time to plan their attack. It was understood to the jounin team that the three Stone officials and their four bodyguards were to meet them at the top of a bluff where everything around them could be seen. It was a safe place, both villages had agreed, because it didn't leave room for surprise attacks from either side. In actuality, however, the treaty had already been sent to the Stone village at an earlier date and the meeting had been organized between the villages in order to eradicate the threat of the rogues. Information had leaked that the rogues had no qualms about the wishes of their government and would use the meeting spot to take out all members involved, including their own if need be in order to prevent the peace treaty, and upon hearing it, the Stone Village decided that they would not stand for it.

When preparations had been made and the ANBU trio had hidden themselves away, then it just became a game of patience. The jounin team arrived about an hour or so later and shortly afterward, the Stone officials' caravan could be seen coming up the path. They reached the top and greeted the jounin trio of Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai and as Kurenai handed over the scroll containing the artificial treaty, the official who took it drew a kunai and attacked. The caravan occupants did away with their transformation jutsu and were replaced by seven rogues and they engaged the jounin in battle with the intent to kill.

"Now!" Kakashi yelled out, and the group of ANBU burst out of the ground, each focusing on an opponent.

The jounin had been holding their own quite well and had taken out one of the rogues with ease, but the others proved to be more challenging. Yuriko focused her attention on her one opponent with the order to eliminate all enemies at all costs, and was immediately on the offensive. Being from the Stone village, her opponent was likely to have an affinity for earth so Yuriko decided that her water would be the best counter. The only problem was that there wasn't a water source nearby, so she would have to make due with one of her lesser used wind jutsu. In order to do so, however, she would need to make an opportunity for herself.

She drew her short swords and charged them with her wind chakra as she ran at her opponent. She made quick but accurate slashes, even accounting for the opponent's counterattacks and how he would move or dodge to avoid critical damage even with her wind chakra enhanced attacks, and when she'd caused enough surface damage, she intensified her attack, sheathing her swords and withdrawing senbon from her pouch. Before her opponent could respond or react to the pause in Yuriko's offense, she created a clone and she and her clone focused chakra into their feet to increase their speed. The two of them ran around the opponent in a circle, constantly throwing senbon with precision, hitting pressure and chakra points and rendering his limbs useless and increasing speed until he was encased in a whirlwind and unable to form signs with how quickly he was being attacked. Yuriko released her clone and slid to a halt, weaving a final combination of hand signs aimed at the rogue.

Within seconds he was screaming in agony as her jutsu took effect. All of the cuts and scrapes that she'd inflicted on him were what made it possible for all of the oxygen in his body to be extracted, even from the microscopic level of his blood cells. Without allowing herself to dwell on the rogue's excruciating demise, she scanned the battlefield to distract herself and jump back into battle only to see that the enemies had all been defeated and many lay unconscious or groaning in agony, immobilized. The jounin had survived and were standing around, looking worse for the wear and confused as to why the ANBU were present as well.

"Captain…" Yuriko's gaze was questioning of what to do next.

"Complete the mission," Kakashi stated and Yuriko nodded in understanding, withdrawing a kunai and walking to the first rogue within sight.

"Wh-what are you doing?" the man in green that Yuriko recognized going into his mission briefing as she was leaving hers asked.

She remained silent as she looked into the rogue's eyes through her fox mask while he stared back at her, his feeble hand reaching to attempt to push her hand away as she placed the cold steel to his jugular and slid the blade across it before stabbing him in the heart to end his misery faster. Blood had splattered across her mask, but she remained steely and indifferent as she quickly stood, flicking her wrist to release his grip on her and walked away to the next. As she placed the steel to the throat of the next enemy, she felt someone forcefully grab her arm and lift her up. On instinct, Yuriko's senses heightened and she flipped the person over her back, slammed her knee into their chest, and held the kunai to their throat. When she saw that it was the jounin in green, she instantly relinquished.

"Do not interfere. This has nothing to do with you," she demanded, her voice hard and uncompassionate and her eyes dull and lifeless.

"Kakashi, why aren't you stopping her?!" Guy urged, struggling through the lack of breath from having the wind knocked out of him as he got back to his feet.

"You've done well, Guy. Your mission is complete. We will take it from here."

"But—!"

Yuriko continued with the dirty task given to her and slit the throat and stabbed the heart of the next rogue before continuing on again.

"Go home, Guy. This is beyond you," Kakashi added with finality and Guy reluctantly and begrudgingly turned his back to the scene and started making his way back toward Konoha, followed by his teammates.

When the mission had been completed and the threat of the Stone rogues eliminated, Kakashi walked over to Yuriko. Her whole body trembled and when she heard him approach, she rounded on him.

"Are we done here? Please tell me we're done…" she pleaded, trying not to let her voice betray her emotions and failing.

Kakashi nodded and Yuriko was the first to begin the descent down the trail back toward Konoha with Yamato and Kakashi following close behind. They journeyed until they'd made it back to friendly territory and when they stopped to set up camp, Yuriko performed a sensory jutsu to see if there was a significant water source nearby. She found a lake not too far away from where they'd stopped and asked if they could move closer to it for safety reasons since she was going to go to it regardless of what either of her teammates said. When neither opposed with it not being far off the path, they set up camp and when Yuriko had finished eating, she said she was going to go for a swim and asked to be left alone for a while. Kakashi and Yamato watched her walk away and when she was out of sight, the two of them sighed.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Yamato inquired. "She didn't seem to be doing so well back there…"

Kakashi remained silent and closed his eyes, lying back in the grass. Her tone of voice when she'd told Guy that it was none of his concern had worried the silver haired shinobi more than he let on. Had Yuriko ever killed someone before then? If she had, it must have been under different, more life threatening circumstances rather than simply because it was an order.

Yuriko floated on her back, looking up at the stars. The sound of the rogue's screams echoed in her head and when she closed her eyes, it was the eyes of each of the rogues who had been conscious when she'd come to execute them that appeared in vivid color. She held her breath and quickly dove under the surface, allowing the water to wash through her hair as she propelled herself forward, attempting to leave the haunting sounds and images behind her in a wave of bubbles. Eventually, it worked as she allowed her mind to drift with the flow of the water around her. When she surfaced, she'd calmed down a considerable amount and decided that she'd been away from her teammates for long enough. When she swam to shore she wrung her hair of as much excess water as she could before getting dressed again and walking back to camp.

Kakashi heard Yuriko approach the camp site and looked up at her. Her hair was wet and there were still droplets of water clinging to her skin but she seemed to be back to her normal, stoic and less emotionally expressive self. She sat as close to the fire as she could handle to dry off and Kakashi sat up.

"You'd never done that before… had you?"

"I wouldn't be here if I hadn't…" she stated, blunt and to the point.

He nodded in understanding and let it go, dropping the conversation before it continued and made her uncomfortable again. Yuriko stared into the embers, listening to the welcoming popping of the fire and her eyelids began to droop. Kakashi watched as she began to doze off and thought to himself that she was handling it all quite well despite it being her first mission with two complete strangers as her teammates. He was impressed and when she'd fallen asleep with her head rested on her folded arms over her knees, he noticed that she'd begun to sway. Worried that she'd fall into the fire, he coaxed her into her sleeping bag and made sure she was close enough to the fire to stay warm but far enough away so as not to catch.

Kakashi insisted that he'd take the second watch to allow her time to rest and fell asleep to get in a nap before he was to start. He woke up a couple hours later and before switching with Yamato, he walked over to check on Yuriko. She was turned onto her side, facing the fire and her long silver tresses were splayed out wildly beneath her, her full lips slightly parted, he could tell from beneath her mask. As he was about to walk away, he heard her mumbling in her sleep and looked closer to see a wet streak across the bridge of her nose and a darkened spot on her sleeping bag beneath her head.

"No more… please… stop," she muttered barely above a whisper. "No… more screams… no… pain…"

Kakashi crouched beside the young kunoichi as she'd done for him nights before and slowly rubbed the back of his knuckle along the bridge of her nose to her forehead, smoothing her tense expression and calming her. She curled up closer to the fire in her sleep with a sigh and Kakashi took his leave. When he'd jumped to the perch to take over, Yamato smirked at him.

"I've never seen you so affectionate before, senpai. Could our new teammate have created a soft spot for our famed Copycat Ninja?"

"I was simply returning the favor," Kakashi stated without a trace of emotion to betray anything he may have been feeling or thinking.

* * *

Team Ro had completed their mission and as they reached the gate to the city, Yuriko paused and looked up at the Konoha symbol burned into the wooden sign overhead. When she'd first arrived she'd been nervous walking into the city, questioning whether or not she'd be accepted, what she could expect the rest of her life to be like here in this town, what kind of people she'd meet. Since she'd been accepted and officially had a place to call her own and met a few people that she might be able to call friends, she smiled to herself.

"_I'm home," _she thought and walked to catch up to her teammates who had paused to wait for her.

When the ANBU team had debriefed with the Hokage, they were given a few days to rest and recover so Yuriko took the time to properly groom and pamper herself when she'd returned home, starting with a long, hot shower to wash away the layers of dirt and grime. When she'd finished, she prepared dinner and tea and when she'd finished eating, she lounged on her couch with her book.

The next day she'd decided to go for a walk around the city again, dressed in a pair of black leggings, a loose fitting angel flap sleeved white yukata style dress with a lavender sash tied around her slim waist, a fishnet undershirt, and her purple mask. Her hair was left down and free and it trailed gently behind her with the breeze. While she was walking, she came across Kurenai who smiled and waved at her.

"Hey, Yuriko. How are you?"

"Much better now that I'm back in town. I'm sorry you had to see me like that…" Yuriko apologized, referring to her behavior during the mission.

"Don't worry about it. I understand. A group of us are getting together for a little bit of a party tonight. Do you wanna come? I think it'll be good for you to meet some new people instead of sticking to your own devices all the time. It helps make getting along here in the village easier when you have people you can confide in."

Yuriko was shocked. She'd never been invited out before, and she'd never really been anywhere long enough to make friends. Maybe Kurenai was right. Maybe it would do her some good to get out. It would definitely take her mind away from her own loneliness and the terrors that haunted her thoughts when she had too much free time if she was with people.

"Yeah, I'd love to go. Thanks for the invite," she genuinely smiled.

"Great! It'll be a lot of fun. If you want, we can meet up somewhere and get ready together or something," Kurenai beamed, glad to get Yuriko out of her shell a bit.

"Get ready? Is what I'm wearing now not appropriate?"

"No, you look great. If you want to go like that, that's totally fine. Anyway, the party starts at eight."

Kurenai smiled and waved good-bye, saying that she'd be by Yuriko's apartment at 7:30 to pick her up as she took her exit and Yuriko continued on her walk. She passed by Ichiraku and a certain blonde ninja-in-training was on his way out when he saw her.

"Yuriko nee-chan!" he called out and Yuriko paused, feeling her heart flutter and a blush rise to her cheeks.

"What did you just call me?" she asked when he'd caught up to her, a smile composing the majority of his face until he'd seen her confused and shocked expression, wondering if he'd said something worng.

"Nee-chan… is that okay?" Naruto questioned, wondering if he'd said something wrong.

She smiled wide and placed her hand on his head, ruffling his hair a bit. "Sure… What's up?"

"It's just… I hadn't seen you in a while…" he blushed, looking away.

Yuriko smiled and invited him to walk with her so that they could catch up, and perhaps she could keep him out of trouble, even if only for the day. She'd missed the kid, and he would provide her with good company and entertainment until Kurenai came to get her later that night, anyway.


	6. Chapter 6

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

Chapter 6

Yuriko and Kurenai walked into a dimly lit bar and proceeded to make their way through the bar to a patio area in the back that had a large circular fireplace. It was a Friday night and it was busy, but Yuriko could tell that more people would show up throughout the night and it would get crowded. There was music playing low from somewhere so guests could still have a decent conversation without having to scream to hear each other and there was a full service bar only a few feet from their spot at the fireplace.

Around the fireplace there were already a few people seated with drinks and Yuriko recognized two of them as the other two jounin from Kurenai's team and one of them as the shinobi who had escorted her to the Hokage's office when she'd first arrived in the village, Genma. There was also a woman with shaggy purple hair in a fanned out ponytail and pale brown eyes dressed in a little black dress that ended just above her knees, and two male shinobi still in their uniforms. One had long spiked black hair, a bandage across his nose and cheeks, and his headband across his forehead, and the second that she didn't recognize had long brown hair with his bangs covering his right eye and a bandana style forehead protector. As they approached, Kurenai smiled wide and greeted everyone and they all greeted her back.

"Sorry I'm late. I brought a friend of mine with," she stated. "Everyone, this is Yuriko. She's new to the village and has become an official Konoha shinobi recently, but she's very talented. Yuriko, you've kind of met my teammates Guy and Asuma."

Yuriko averted her eyes, feeling bad for having knocked the wind out of and pointed a kunai at Guy but she courteously bowed anyway. "It's nice to actually meet you."

"And then we have Anko, Kotetsu, Izumo, and Genma. Anko is my best friend, Kotetsu and Izumo are best friends and practically joined at the hip, even at work, and watch out for Genma. He's a bit of a lady's man," Kurenai continued loud enough for everyone to hear to obviously poke fun as she gestured to each in turn.

Yuriko forced a smile and bowed in greeting, already uncomfortable with the situation that she'd found herself in. There were too many people, even in just this small group, and to make it even worse, the majority of them were men. She took a seat beside Asuma, praying that he was the safest bet between him and Genma after Kurenai's warning that Genma was a ladies' man and kept her eyes downcast, being the outsider of the group as the others struck up conversation. Yuriko tuned them out, watching the bar goers outside of their group and coming to conclusions about each person she observed.

That guy with the scruffy facial hair in a yukata was a womanizer. He was offering to buy drinks for pretty women left and right, and when someone turned him down, he just shrugged and moved on to the next one. That girl with a pound of make-up on and the dyed-blonde hair was easy. She was taking drinks from anyone who offered and flirting with any guy who gave her attention. She'd probably leave with the guy who flattered her the most by the end of the night. The two girls dancing in the corner were very pretty, but they were obviously there for the music and the constant compliments and attempted grinding on from behind they were getting from men of various levels of drunkenness were annoying and ruining their mood. The guy in a suit sitting alone at the bar had had a rough day at work and was drinking his problems away. The five tumblers in front of him all still had ice cubes rather than water in them, so he'd downed them all within a ten minute span, Yuriko guessed. When Yuriko heard her name called, she reeled back to focus her attention back on the group.

"Sorry?" Yuriko inquired.

"Do you drink?" Anko repeated and Yuriko stared at her for a brief moment, processing what it was that Anko was asking her before she responded.

"I've never had alcohol before."

"What?! Why not?!" Anko, Genma and Kotetsu gasped in shock.

"I've travelled by myself a lot so I didn't want to risk inhibition. The world is dangerous enough without it when you're alone."

"I suppose that's understandable… Well, you're not alone or travelling, so would you care for a drink?"

Yuriko smiled beneath her mask without feeling and politely declined having had only just met everyone and not feeling comfortable enough to let herself go around them quite yet. She also wasn't sure how she'd react to the alcohol and didn't want to risk making a fool of herself in public. The evening was really relaxed for the most part, with light conversation between the group that Yuriko would tune out to observe her surroundings and people watch until someone asked her a question directly. About an hour later Yuriko found that she'd grown bored, not knowing how to interact with more than a couple people at once. She'd almost given up and decided to leave but when she looked toward the door, mapping her escape, she saw a familiar gravity-defying silver hairstyle and scoffed. If he'd been invited and had agreed to come to this gathering as well, he was definitely far from on time.

"Kakashi!" Guy smiled, waving him over and as the platinum-haired shinobi made his way over, he was shocked to see his newest teammate there as well.

"Yuriko? What are you doing here? I didn't expect you to be the party type," he inquired, half-heartedly waving to everyone else as the slightest acknowledgement of their existence while his attention was obviously focused on Yuriko.

"Kurenai invited me. She thought it'd be good for me to get out and meet people."

Kakashi simply nodded and without asking or waiting to be invited, he took it upon himself to have a seat beside Yuriko, completing the circle of people around the fireplace. Yuriko cringed a bit internally about being surrounded by men, but she suppressed the urge to just get up and leave with the hopes that this might actually turn into an interesting night now that her mysterious captain had joined the group. Perhaps she could learn more about him and get insight into his notorious and oh-so-irritating tardiness.

"I'm surprised you came, Kakashi," Asuma stated with a smile as he lit his cigarette. "Are you drinking with us this evening?"

"Maybe I'll have a couple. It was a rough mission and might help take the edge off…" Kakashi sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.

Yuriko noticed that he looked more tired than he had throughout the mission. There were visible bags under his uncovered eye and his body seemed deflated though his muscles were still clearly defined. Kakashi glanced over at Yuriko, feeling her eyes set on him and found himself staring into her pale purple eyes before she averted her gaze and called for a waiter to come over. She ordered a mixed drink, figuring that would be the best way to ease herself into the drinking scene and Kakashi ordered a double whiskey on the rocks. When their drinks had come out, the questions started up again.

"Kakashi-senpai, how do you know Yuriko?" Izumo inquired, taking another sip of his beer.

"She's my newest teammate," Kakashi stated and Izumo, Kotetsu, and Genma all almost choked on their drinks.

"What?!"

"Is that a bad thing?" Yuriko asked, their reactions being a bit unusual.

"Kurenai, why didn't you tell us she was ANBU?!" Genma harshly whispered across the low flames.

Yuriko glared, not liking that they were talking about here when she was obviously right there and had asked a question that went unanswered. "I'm still here, you know. You could have just asked."

"Sorry, sorry. It's just… you don't look… I mean, the mask, yeah, but I thought it was just a fashion statement or something."

"Why do you wear a mask, Yuriko? If I remember correctly, you didn't have one when you first got here and I don't remember seeing any scars or anything like that that you might want to cover up," Kurenai chimed in her own curiosity.

Yuriko remained silent and looked down into the drink in her hands that she still had yet to take a sip from. She shrank into herself, her thoughts going dark. _'Who says a scar has to be visible for someone to want to hide it?'_

"You're so pretty. It's a shame that you cover it up." Kurenai had seen her friend's discomfort and attempted to help lighten the mood with the compliment to steer the conversation in a different direction.

Yuriko blushed and glanced at Kurenai who smiled at her in return. Yuriko had heard before that she was pretty, but it had always been said by a male who was only trying to flatter her so he could get her in bed with him. It had grown to have little meaning to her, but hearing someone she would consider her first friend since childhood say it made her feel like it might actually be true.

"Let's play a game," Kotetsu suggested, trying to lighten the mood some more and piquing Yuriko's interest.

"What kind of game?" she chirped.

"It's been a while since we've played 'I Never,'" Genma suggested and the others seemed to agree but Yuriko tilted her head slightly.

"What's that?" she asked.

Anko explained the rules and Kurenai smiled, chiming in that it'd be a fun way to learn about the other players without the awkwardness of 21 questions directed at a single person. The group agreed, and the game began with Yuriko stating that she'd never played before. The game continued with the friends making jabs at each other with inside or obvious knowledge or jokes. It was indeed a good way for Yuriko to learn about each of the members of the group, but she was particularly interested in what Kakashi had done. She never would have guessed that he'd ever been in a romantic relationship of any sort, but it made her wonder who the lucky lady had been to see his face or if she'd seen his face at all.

Yuriko's turn came around again and she mentioned that she'd never been to academy and the whole game seemed to come to a screeching halt as everyone looked at her, unbelieving.

"What do you mean you've never been to academy?" Kotetsu asked, baffled that it was even possible for her to be ANBU without ever having attended school.

"We didn't have one where I come from and I never stayed anywhere for long enough to ever attend."

"Wow… you must have had an amazing teacher at some point, then," Genma smirked, after having had curled under his finger and taken his drink.

Yuriko couldn't help but to cringe, realizing that that had been Genma's attempt at a compliment toward her. It seemed the more he drank, the flirtier he got and apparently his eyes were set on her for the evening. She was not looking forward to whatever else might come up throughout the game if that's where his mind was headed.

Instead, she turned her thoughts to her first teacher after the invasion of her village but she quickly brushed the thought away and glanced around the circle, counting everyone's fingers. She realized that Anko seemed to be winning with only four fingers down and Kurenai only had two fingers remaining. Kakashi and Asuma weren't too far behind with three fingers remaining each. The game continued, and Yuriko was beginning to grow bored again. Soon it was down to just Yuriko and Anko, the apparent reigning victor of the game since the group had first begun playing together. Each only had two fingers remaining up and it had become a battle for the title in Anko's eyes, despite Yuriko's disinterest.

"I've never had sex," Anko stated and Yuriko twitched.

Anko had hit a very touchy topic for Yuriko in her drunkenness over her self-proclaimed title as the queen of _I Never_. Yuriko grimaced as she took her drink and put a finger down, consciously recomposing and squashing her emotions so they wouldn't show and betray to Anko that it was a touchy subject. Though Anko was too drunk to notice Yuriko's emotional slip up, Kakashi had.

"I've never masturbated," Yuriko stated and Anko blushed as she curled under a finger and took her drink, evening up the score once again.

"I've never slept in the same bed as someone of the opposite gender," Anko said and Yuriko remained stoic though her mood slightly darkened and her finger remained up.

"I've never taken a promotion test," Yuriko stated, decidedly finishing the game.

She hadn't liked where Anko's train of thought and prodding were headed and put a stop to it before it could progress any further. Anko huffed before she downed the rest of her drink. Her cheeks were flushed and her expression was pouty and Yuriko had seen enough people belligerently drunk before to know that Anko was at least a little bit drunk and sighed, deciding to let Anko's probing slide just this once.

"We have a new champion!" Guy yelled a little too excitedly, his cheeks also flushed and a huge, face-splitting grin exposing every single one of his gleaming white teeth as he let out a raucous laugh. "A round of drinks for everyone!"

"I think I'll pass, thanks," Yuriko stated after finishing her drink and firmly replacing her mask over her nose and mouth. "It's been fun, but I think I've had enough social interaction for today."

Without another word, she left money for her drink and a tip and made her way through the crowd to the door, ignoring the protests of the group, asking her to stay. She'd reached her limit of how much time she could spend interacting with a group of almost complete strangers or in a crowded area. The topic of the game hadn't made her want to stay any longer, either. It was time for her to take her leave.


	7. Chapter 7

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_Warning: This updated chapter is sexually explicit. If you are offended by such content, please do not read it. I repeat, this is a sexually explicit chapter so please take heed if lemons are not your cup of tea and do not read it. If lemons aren't a big deal and/or you enjoy them, please read on and enjoy. It's not much, but it serves a purpose to the revamped plot. Don't forget to let me know what you think, too, please! Thank you. -Nira_

Chapter 7

Yuriko made her way out of the bar, cringing internally at how much she had to touch and be touched by strangers as she did. She literally had to fight her way through and she was positive that she'd been groped a couple times as she made her way across the dance floor. She ignored the drunken compliments thrown her way and pushed aside the men who stood in her way, trying to grind their crotch against her and call it dancing and when she'd cleared the crowd and gotten outside, she sighed in relief, shivered in disgust, and quickened her pace toward the forest in search of a lake or body of water to go for a swim to help her clear her mind.

Kakashi had decided to stay and enjoy the party since it had been a while since he'd been out with his friends. Another couple of hours passed before the majority of the group was drunk and being obnoxious. Kakashi decided to take his leave as well, having had seen enough. For a brief moment he wondered where Yuriko had gone and if she was okay, but when an attractive brunette showing a bit of cleavage and wearing fishnet stockings stood between him and the door and they locked eyes, she smiled at him and he allowed his gaze to travel along her frame, completely forgetting about his teammate.

'_34, 26, 38…'_

He made his way toward her and when they'd met, her smile grew. She smelled slightly of alcohol, but not enough for Kakashi to believe that she was drunk. He wasn't either and it wouldn't be any fun or even worth it if she was. Kakashi loved his women, yes, but he had morals and taking advantage of a drunk woman was like kicking an injured puppy to him. It was wrong and made him feel like a terrible person, so he just didn't do it.

"Hi, there," she smiled. "Leaving already?"

"Well, I was planning on it, but if a beautiful woman such as yourself were to join me, I wouldn't have to go home lonely tonight."

"You're quite direct, aren't you?" she chuckled. "I like that. Not very many men have your confidence."

"Because they're not me."

The woman's eyes turned sultry and she offered her hand for a hand shake. "I'm Ayumi."

"Kakashi," he smirked below his mask before pressing his clothed lips to the back of her hand with a slight bow. "Shall we?"

"Lead the way," she grinned, and the two made their way through the rest of the crowd to the door.

When they'd breached the doorway into the street, the two interlocked their arms and continued walking toward Kakashi's apartment making light, meaningless conversation. Kakashi sighed internally, wishing she'd shut up. He hadn't decided to bring her home because he thought they could have a good conversation over tea, but he smiled and nodded and answered questions as if he was thoroughly enthralled in whatever it was she was talking about so as not to offend her and drive her away. That tended to be a problem that he encountered a lot if he ever decided to bring a woman home for a bit of fun. They talked way too much about nothing important and didn't realize or seem to care that he was really only looking for a physical and chemical release for the tension and stress of missions without any kind of emotional attachment.

When they'd entered the apartment Ayumi looked around, giving herself a small tour and Kakashi snuck up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She took in a slight gasp, feeling his breath unobstructed against her neck and when she tried to turn to get a look, Kakashi held her tighter.

"No peeking," he purred into her ear, licking along the lobe and nibbling lightly.

The excited shudder that rolled through her and the moan that escaped from her throat told Kakashi that he'd succeeded in piquing her interest enough for her to want to stay, so he upped his game, moving in for the slow kill. His hands wandered around her body, pulling the hem of her dress up just enough for him to feel where her thigh-high fishnets began and the neckline down to expose the entirety of one shoulder that he helped himself to a taste of.

"You sure know how to get a woman going," Ayumi chuckled, her voice sultry as she rolled her hips into his, making a point to feel his length through the thin fabric of her dress and running her fingers through his hair.

Not knowing what to say in response without sounding like a pig, Kakashi opted instead to inch the tight-fitting dress up and over her head, removing the garment and leaving her in a matching black lace bra and thong lingerie set, making sure to stay just out of her line of sight.

"Do you trust me?" he cooed to her neck.

She nodded and he whispered for her to close her eyes and keep them closed as he led her by the hand toward the bedroom and eased her onto the bed before he walked around the bed to close the curtains to make the room pitch black so that even if she did open her eyes, she wouldn't be able to make out what he looked like. While he was up, he tore open a condom from his bedside table and rolled it onto his length.

"Can I open my eyes yet?"

"Not yet."

Kakashi crawled onto the bed behind her, running a fingertip along her spine and causing her to shudder and let out a sigh. He sat behind her, one hand cupping her supple breast and pinching her nipple while the other inched its way along her stomach to her nether regions. Ayumi couldn't help but to moan as his careful hand gently pried her legs apart and fondled the small hooded bundle of nerves through the fabric of her panties. She was already wet with excitement and when he softly bit into the tender flesh of her neck, something in her snapped.

"It's not nice to tease," she pouted. "I can feel that you're just as excited as I am, so why don't you fuck me already?"

"If that's what you want," Kakashi smirked, pinching her clit and eliciting a squeal from the curvaceous brunette.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and threw her down onto the bed, swiftly changing positions so that he was looming over her. She'd cheated and opened her eyes, but by that point, it didn't matter. It was too dark for her to see him. Kakashi pulled the sopping fabric of her panties aside and teased a bit more, rubbing his length along her dripping sex while Ayumi squirmed, attempting to position herself so that he'd penetrate her.

"Please," she whined. "I want it."

Not needing to be told a third time, Kakashi obliged and slid the entirety of his length into Ayumi's warmth while she let out a hearty moan at the welcome intrusion. It was bigger and thicker than she'd expected it to be, but she was far from disappointed or deterred. He thrust his hips fast and hard into hers and the moans and screams that erupted from within her echoed throughout the room as her sex squeezed around his. Ayumi quickly inched closer and closer to her climax as Kakashi's rock hard member drilled into her, but just as she was about to reach it, he pulled out.

"What are you doing?! Don't stop!" she protested in frustration.

"Turn around," he purred, seductive.

Without hesitation, Ayumi turned so that she was on all fours and looked back at Kakashi expectantly. He smacked her rear and she yelped but arched her back more and wagged her tail back and forth, begging for more. He smacked the other cheek, drawing another yelp that morphed into a groan when he sheathed himself within her once again. Ayumi purred in content at being full of him again before she began to roll her hips in time with each of his thrusts. His pace quickened, and with it, so did Ayumi's moaning pants until she was left gasping for breath and clutching onto the sheets below her. Kakashi's hips pushed faster into hers, his hands gripping onto her pelvis and leaving slight bruises at the small of her back and waist.

He was close and he could feel that she was as well by how tightly her walls squeezed around him. When Ayumi reached her orgasm, she let out a healthy scream into the bedsheets, her fists gripped so tight around them that her knuckles turned white and inner walls going into spasms, clutching onto Kakashi's length and milking him dry as he, too, was pulled over the edge. The two of them collapsed onto the bed, panting and utterly satisfied. When they'd caught their breath, Kakashi pulled his mask back over his face, removed and disposed of the condom, and pulled on a pair of pants while Ayumi slowly redressed and recomposed herself.

When she'd gathered her belongings and made herself presentable, Kakashi walked her to and opened the door and leaned against the frame. He didn't say anything, but Ayumi smirked and faced him again, pressing her lips to the cloth where his would be, catching the shinobi slightly off guard.

"You know, Kakashi, your reputation precedes you. It was definitely as fun as everyone said it would be. Thanks for an awesome time," she hummed, turned, and sauntered away and down the stairs.

Yuriko had just returned from her late night swim to overhear the conversation and pass by a curvy brunette with a huge smile plastered on her face who reeked of sweat and sex. She scoffed at the woman and when she'd seen Kakashi standing in his doorway in only his mask and a pair of pants, Yuriko glared at him in disgust as she stalked past him. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head as he lazily returned to his apartment to shower, completely exhausted but feeling a lot better and ignoring his neighbor's judgmental gaze.

Yuriko was appalled. Was there anything redeemable about her captain? He was always late AND he was a womanizing bastard. And the woman who had left was no better for having gone along with it. If she knew Kakashi had a reputation for sleeping around, why would she subject herself to being another number to him? Didn't she have any self-respect?

Yuriko was glad she hadn't been home to hear them and made a mental note to invest in ear plugs in case he had women over often. Just because she lived next door to him didn't mean that she wanted to know or hear who- or whatever he did in his free time. She'd been worried that he wasn't getting enough sleep when she'd seen him at the party earlier and was going to leave him a bag of her herbal sleep-inducing tea, but now that she knew why he was sleep deprived, she couldn't stand him.

She showered, washing the lake algae from her hair and got dressed and ready for bed. She wasn't exactly tired and it was a nice night, so she decided to read on her balcony to allow her hair to air dry a bit before she went to sleep. When she'd opened her door and stepped onto her balcony, she noticed that Kakashi had had the same idea. Hearing his neighbor's balcony door slide open, Kakashi glanced up to acknowledge her and was greeted with a glare before she turned her back to him and opened her book, decidedly ignoring him.

He sighed, wondering what he'd ever done to make her hate him so much. It wasn't the first time that she'd blatantly ignored him or flat out glared at him just for being in her presence, it seemed. Thinking back to their mission, though, she couldn't completely despise him. She'd stopped to soothe him when she'd seen that he'd been having a nightmare. That had to count for something… right?

* * *

Yuriko awoke the next morning, yawned and stretched. It was still early with the sun still low in the sky but her stomach growling at her and her bladder constricting prevented her from staying in bed and sleeping more. After a light breakfast and cool shower, she dressed in an emerald green long sleeved cardigan over a beige tank top, dark blue jeggings, and a cream scarf with violet stitching. She braided her hair to the side, hanging over her shoulder and slipped on a pair of cream flats before making her way outside. She wasn't entirely sure where she was going but she had energy to blow so she just walked.

Eventually she'd meandered into what appeared to be a farmer's market with small stands set up selling whatever products they had from hand-made jewelry to produce with the dirt still on it, fresh from the garden or field. Yuriko stopped by each stand, looking over each of the merchants' wares, fascinated that there was such a wide arrangement of products. She found herself at a stand that had intricately painted fans and her eye was caught by a metal fan with very taut lavender dyed fabric spread across the fan's ribbing. There was a painting of a white lotus flower on a lily pad with gold swirl designs and the kanji for perseverance in the corner and Yuriko couldn't help but to smile, thinking that it was perfect.

"Excuse me, how much for this one?" Yuriko inquired to the elder lady.

"Oh, that one's a weapon, dear. You wouldn't want that," the old woman smiled, but the statement had intrigued Yuriko even more.

"Really? How is it a weapon?" she asked, and the old lady gingerly lifted the fan from its stand in trembling hands.

"There's a button here. When you press it, there are springs at the bottom of each rib that shoot senbon from the tip. See here how it's hollow?"

"May I?" Yuriko smiled, and the old woman smiled and warned her to be careful.

Yuriko thoroughly examined the fan, entranced by its simplistic appearance but deadly functionality. It was perfect, but her finances were critically low. She doubted she had the money for it, but she had to ask anyway.

"How much would you like for this, ba-san?"

"That's five thousand four hundred yen. Are you a kunoichi, young lady?"

"Yes, ma'am, I am," Yuriko smiled, though it wasn't whole-hearted. She'd been right; the fan was out of her price range. "Unfortunately I'll have to come back another time."

"That's a shame. You seem to like it so much."

"I do, but I can't afford it. Thank you for your time."

Yuriko bowed to the shop keep before she turned with a disappointed sigh to continue her walk through the market. Eventually she'd successfully wasted time and energy, having gone to every shop and started to make her way out of the area when she saw a crowd gathered and heard someone yelling.

"What are you doing here? You're a curse on all of us!" a man hollered.

"What? I was only…" came a reply from a familiar voice and Yuriko's gaze hardened and she pushed her way through to the front to get a better view. "I was only looking at the masks."

"You want this? You filthy loser! You disgust me. Just take it!"

The man threw the mask and Yuriko noticed that it was a fox and that it had hit Naruto on the head before landing next to him.

"You can have it, now get lost!"

The man then turned in a huff and walked back to his shop and Naruto looked so deeply hurt as he picked the mask up and stood.

"What?! Why do you all look at me with those eyes?" he demanded, his voice cracking with the tears and pain he was fighting.

Not able to stand it anymore, Yuriko stepped up. "What's wrong with the boy looking? He wasn't going to steal it," she glared, drawing the attention to herself and enticing whispered conversations amongst the crowd.

Naruto's eyes widened as he looked up at her. "Yuriko nee-chan..?"

"Who are you?" the man glared back.

"Who I am is of no importance." Yuriko gently took the mask from Naruto and turned to the man, throwing it back at him with speed and precision, hitting him hard enough on the forehead to leave a large lump and crack the mask. "You can keep your poorly crafted mask, sir. A three year old could do better with paper and glue. Let's go, Naruto-kun."

Yuriko took hold of Naruto's hand, dragging him with her. Eventually she let go of his hand, thinking that he'd be embarrassed to keep holding her hand and as they walked through the village toward her apartment, they were stared at and whispered conversations and glares or looks of disapproval followed them everywhere they went. The two of them remained silent, but Yuriko could feel his tension from beside her.

"Naruto-kun, have you eaten?" she asked eventually.

As if to answer her question, his stomach growled and a blush rose to his cheeks as she chuckled.

"Come on. I'll cook something for you. I don't have much money, but I have plenty of food at my house."

He nodded, still remaining silent and continued to follow her until they'd reached her apartment. She dug through the cupboards, gathering ingredients for onigiri, miso soup, teriyaki chicken, and takoyaki. As she was pulling out the kettle for tea, Naruto called out to her, his voice hoarse, and she looked at him, hearing his struggle. There were silent tears streaming down his face and off the tip of his nose and her heart ached, so she took the few steps to reach him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight comforting embrace. Neither of them said anything, but they stood there for a moment in mutual understanding while Naruto calmed down and when he had, Yuriko smiled at him.

"Let's get cooking, shall we? I don't know about you, but I'm starved."


	8. Chapter 8

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

Chapter 8

Kakashi had made his way out of his apartment sometime in the middle of the morning, fully rested from a full night of uninhibited sleep and made his way through the farmer's market on his way to the Yamanaka flower shop to buy a bouquet to bring to the memorial when he caught sight of Yuriko. She was thoroughly enthralled in examining a metal fan and talking to the elder lady who ran the shop. He couldn't hear them, but he saw Yuriko's face fall as she set the fan back on its stand, bowed to the shopkeeper, and wandered away. Kakashi walked over to the stand and examined the fan, wondering what was so special about it for her to be so interested. It looked like an ordinary fan with a white lotus flower and gold swirls painted on lavender canvas, but Yuriko had seemed so fascinated by it.

"Are you looking to purchase that fan, young man?" the lady inquired. "There was just a young kunoichi here not even a minute ago who very badly wanted it but she said she couldn't afford it. She was a sweet child so I'm thinking to hold onto it for her, but I'll let you look at it."

"Oh? It seems like an ordinary fan to me," Kakashi stated, hoping to draw more information from this old gossip. "I don't see why she would want it so badly. It's pretty, yes, but it is just a fan, isn't it?"

"I should wash your mouth out with soap. That fan is a specially crafted weapon," she huffed in response. "As a shinobi, you should be able to see that."

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize that it was a weapon," he stated, genuinely intrigued. "No wonder she was so interested in it, then…" he muttered to himself.

"Do you know that young lady? Is she someone special to you?"

"She's special, that's for sure," Kakashi sneered, thinking about their team dynamics and how she openly despised him and the old lady giggled like a school girl, not catching his tone.

"I see! Well if that's the case, you should buy it for her then! She'll be so happy to get such a beautiful gift from such a handsome boyfriend."

Kakashi was taken aback but decided that he wouldn't correct her. Yuriko had an affinity for wind and it had proven deadly and extremely useful during their last mission, but she'd needed to create a clone to perform it. If she'd had an easier means of calling up the wind, he wondered if it would have been more efficient. It might be useful if they decided to train and practice together to better their dual attacks, he thought.

"I'll take it," he grinned at her and she beamed, her excitement over a seemingly romantic gesture of young love bubbling over. "But if she comes back asking for it, let's keep it a secret between you and me, okay?"

"Of course, of course! Since it's a gift, I'll give it to you for a special discount. That'll be four thousand five hundred yen, and I'll throw in this charm and carrying case free of charge. Oh, she's just going to love it, young man!"

Kakashi thanked the woman as he traded his money for the fan and he tucked the fan into the carrying case and then into his pocket before continuing on toward the flower shop once again. After visiting his fallen comrades for a few hours, Kakashi started making his way back toward the center of the village and debated about how he'd give the fan to Yuriko. By the time he'd reached his apartment, he'd decided that he'd give it to her anonymously but still had no clue how he'd do it. Eventually, he gave up with a sigh and set it aside to think about later.

Yuriko had had lunch and chatted with Naruto for a bit before she sent him off, thinking that his parents must be worried seeing as it was already evening and the sun was already tinging the sky shades of purple and blue and orange as it began to set. When he'd left, she decided to wander around the village, as had become habit now when she had nothing else to do and she came across Genma who looked bored as he walked with his hands shoved into his pockets. Upon seeing her, he stood up straighter and smiled, waving to her.

"Hey, Yuriko. Did you have fun last night?" he inquired.

"Yeah, I did. Sorry about cutting out early. I got a little uncomfortable," she explained, making a conscious effort to be courteous.

"That's fine. It didn't really get any better or worse once you'd left. Guy and Anko drank too much and had to be dragged home about an hour later anyway."

Yuriko chuckled, imagining Izumo and Kotetsu dragging Guy home while he laughed and yelled out obnoxiously that he wanted to have a contest to see who could run the fastest or something.

"Anyway, what are you up to?" Genma added.

"Nothing really. I've been wandering, trying to find something to do."

"Well, do you mind if I join you? I'm kind of bored, myself, and I'd like to get to know you better."

"Why?" Yuriko asked, suspicion tinting her question with venom.

"Well… it's not very often that we get refugees, even less often that we get kunoichi looking to serve a different nation, and even less often still for those kunoichi to be skilled enough to be automatically added to an ANBU team. You're mysterious and it's intriguing."

"Sorry, but I don't want to talk about any of that. It's not pleasant conversation material."

"That's fine," Genma smiled. "What do you like to do in your spare time?"

Yuriko's gaze was questioning as she looked her fellow shinobi over, wondering what his intentions were. Neither of them was drunk and his attitude and mannerisms weren't aggressive enough for him to be hitting on her or trying to get her home. Could he really just be asking out of curiosity?

Yuriko was about to make a comment back, but the sound of someone angrily yelling Naruto's name caught her attention and she turned toward the sound of it to see Naruto laughing and running away from a man with a puffy high ponytail and a scar across his nose and cheeks.

"Naruto-kun?" she muttered, piquing Genma's intrigue and just then the blonde noticed her and ran behind her.

"Yuriko nee-chan, help me!" he laughed.

"Nee-chan?" Genma mused, shocked and confused.

"Naruto-kun, what did you do to get yourself in trouble this time?" she sighed.

The man who had been chasing Naruto stopped in front of her and smiled nervously, before glaring around her at the rambunctious boy behind her.

"Naruto, leave that woman alone and get over here right now," he growled.

"No way, Iruka-sensei! Yuriko nee-chan is gonna protect me," Naruto yelled and stuck his tongue out.

"What's going on?" Yuriko asked. "Naruto-kun, what did you do?"

"I caught him sneaking into the women's changing room at the hot spring," Iruka tattled.

"I was just testing out my new jutsu!" Naruto grumbled.

Yuriko sighed and punched him on the head, so he yelled out and rubbed the spot she'd hit him.

"What was that for?!"

"How would you feel if a girl walked into your house and saw you taking a shower?" she scolded.

"What does that have to—?!"

"You'd be embarrassed, wouldn't you? Humiliated that someone walked into your space and saw you at your most vulnerable? That's what you just did to those girls, Naruto."

He went silent and looked down with a blush across his cheeks, shame written on his face. "I… I didn't think of it like that…"

Yuriko sighed and put her hand on her hip. "This is the second time today that I've helped get you out of trouble. Don't you have anything better to do with your time?"

Naruto remained silent and shrank further into himself.

"I'm sorry he's caused you so much trouble. He really is a good kid," Yuriko stated, turning to Iruka and smiled and bowed sheepishly, placing her hand on Naruto's head.

"Yeah… I mean no! I mean… Hi. I'm Iruka Umino, one of Naruto's instructors at the academy. And you are..?"

"Yuriko Kobayashi, and I'm just a friend." She then turned to Naruto and crouched down to his eye level. "It's getting late. You should head home before trouble finds you again."

"It's not like there's anyone waiting for me," he grumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets and sulking away.

Yuriko stood up, her heart suddenly feeling heavy as she watched him go, a sadness overcoming her senses. When the young blonde was out of earshot, she asked nobody in particular what had happened to his parents.

"They died protecting the village from a monster fox attack when he was born," Iruka stated.

"Both of them were shinobi?"

"Yes."

"Were they buried here… in the village?"

"Yes. There's a memorial in the cemetery for those we lost on that day," Genma chimed in. "How do you know that boy, Yuriko?"

"I got him out of trouble when he painted the Hokage monument and helped him clean it up."

"Why did you get him out of trouble? And why help him? He shouldn't have done it."

"No, but it was funny. It had been a long time since I'd laughed…"

Without knowing how or wanting to continue the conversation, Yuriko excused herself and started making her way toward the cemetery, waving half-heartedly. She'd passed it enough times by now on her way to the Hokage monument to know where it was and when she got there, she walked straight to the large stone in the center, assuming that that was the memorial that Genma had mentioned. On a plaque in front of the stone were hundreds of names and she read each one, pausing on names that sounded familiar. She'd found two Umino names and questioned to herself if they were Iruka's parents before she continued on. She'd only found one Uzumaki and assumed that since the name was female, it was Naruto's mother and she'd decided to keep her maiden name when she'd married leaving Yuriko to wonder who his father was. Regardless, she lowered herself to her knees and prayed, paying her respects to the deceased. Shortly after she'd gotten there, she heard someone walk up to stand beside her. When she'd finished praying, she opened her eyes and looked up to see Iruka.

"I'm sorry for your loss," she stated.

"Thank you… You have a big heart."

"What makes you say that?"

"Genma told me that you're new to the village, and yet here you are paying your respects to people you've never even met from a village you just got to."

"Death is the same no matter where you go or come from. It deserves the same respect wherever you are, regardless of whether or not you personally knew who it took. And those no longer with us should know that the loved ones they left behind are well taken care of and that their sacrifice is appreciated."

"You speak about death like it's something you're familiar with."

"I'm a shinobi. Death is always waiting, watching from over my shoulder. Sometimes he is comforting, others, he is fearsome, others still, he is loathsome, but he is always there. As a shinobi, yourself, none of it should be new to you," she stated, standing up and dusting off her pants.

"It's not… I've just never heard someone state it so eloquently…"

"You've never actually witnessed Death while he was at work… have you?"

"What do you mean?"

Yuriko paused and stared at him. His chocolate brown eyes were lonesome, but they were still innocent. He'd suffered a great deal at the loss of his parents, she could tell, but he'd never watched the breath leave someone's lips or taken life with his own two hands. His relationship with death was one sided, she saw, and she wished with her whole heart that it would stay that way for the rest of his life.

"Never mind… I'm sorry. I've said some unpleasant things," she sighed, her eyes and demeanor softening as she brought herself back to the present, banishing the dark thoughts that had plagued her mind a few short moments before.

"What did you mean?" Iruka insisted.

"Please don't. I don't like to talk about it. It brings back bad memories…"

"You've lost someone, too… haven't you?"

Yuriko sighed with the realization that he wouldn't let it go and looked away. "Yes… I have."

"Who?"

"My parents… my friends… my village… my sensei… everyone. I've lost everyone."

With that, Yuriko took her leave again, uncomfortable with the conversation and unsure of how to get out of it or change the subject, so she simply removed herself from the scene and made her way home, humming a rushed version of her lullaby in an attempt to occupy her thoughts with something other than the macabre and melancholy. When she'd gotten there, she downed a cup of her herbal tea before saying a few words to her mom and going to bed, praying that her conversation with Iruka wouldn't bring back the memories and nightmares of her past.


	9. Chapter 9

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_Hey everyone! Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing and adding this to your favorites/ follows. You're the best and my inspiration to keep writing. It's a good feeling knowing that people enjoy what you do, so thank you all. :3 In this chapter you learn a bit more about Yuriko's past, which I'm sure you've all been wondering about. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well and please don't forget to let me know what you think. :) -Nira_

Chapter 9

It was raining. The sound of the water pelting against the window pane and tapping against the glass was comforting. Yuriko sat in the sill with her fluff ball of a Maine Coon, Lynx asleep in her lap, a fresh cup of green tea beside her, and a book in her hands. She'd begun to doze off when a crack of thunder startled both her and Lynx awake, shaking the entire house with the resounding boom that followed, and Lynx jumped away in fear, running off to cower under a bed somewhere.

"Yuriko, when you go to bed, don't forget to leave your door cracked in case Lynx hid in your room and needs to get out later," came the soft, feminine voice of Amaya from the threshold that led into the kitchen from the living room and Yuriko yawned and waved the raven haired woman off.

"I know, Mom. She always hides in my room when it storms," Yuriko replied with a huff, her own low, melodious voice not yet fully developed.

"You should take it as a compliment. Cats are usually more withdrawn. For her to be so attracted to you is a huge accomplishment, especially since she found you rather than you finding her," a huskier, raspy male voice belonging to her father, Isamu chimed in.

"I know. Lynx is my baby. I love her and she loves me," the young Kimiko smiled. "I'm going to bed, now, though. I've finished this book again. Can't we ever go somewhere to get new ones? I've read every book we have at least a dozen times each already."

"You go through a book a day. Where would we get the money for that?" Isamu inquired.

"I don't know, but it's so boring reading the same things over and over again! What am I supposed to do to keep myself entertained?"

"Why don't you try writing your own book? Or better yet, spend more time with your friends. You and Eiichi have been spending quite a bit of time together, haven't you?" Amaya smirked.

"We always get in trouble…" Yuriko grumbled, fiddling with the tattered corners of the well-loved and worn fantasy book she'd just finished for the thirteenth time.

"We'll think about it. Go to bed and we'll let you know what we've decided in the morning."

Yuriko nodded and yawned again before hugging her parents good night, receiving a kiss on her forehead from Amaya as was the routine every night. She'd showered, dressed in pajamas, brushed her teeth, and curled up in bed, Lynx soon coming out from her hiding spot to sleep on the pillow next to Yuriko's head as she often did. When Yuriko got comfortable, she smiled and scratched behind Lynx's ear until the feline was purring.

"Good night, Lynx. Thanks for keeping me company even though you're scared."

It wasn't long until Yuriko had fallen asleep to the pitter-patting of the rain and dreams and pictures began to swim behind her eyelids. The colors were so bright and warm and she swore she could feel the sun's rays on her face while she and her best friend Eiichi—a young boy only a year older than her at the age of twelve with a mop of wild red hair and innocent green eyes— ran through a field. They'd been stealing blueberries from an elder couple and storing them in their shirts, ruining the bright white fabric of their plain t-shirts with the dark purple juice as they crushed the berries to their stomachs to save as many as they could while they fled when they'd gotten caught.

The two misfits escaped to their favorite clearing in a small wood not far from their equally small village and laughed as they opened the makeshift pouches of their shirts to show how much they'd managed to save. The two of them sat in the clearing and smiled and laughed as they talked and ate their spoils together, and when they'd stuffed themselves with the sweet, round berries and had purple juice staining their lips, fingers, tongues, and t-shirts, they laid there in the grass, basking in the summer sun, their hands clasped together.

"Yuriko, you know what?" Eiichi smiled after a while.

"Chicken butt?" she asked back.

"No," he laughed and turned onto his side to face her with a huge smile on his face. "One day when we're older, I'm gonna ask you to marry me."

A blush spread across Yuriko's face and she looked away. "No way. You're crazy."

"Honest! I'll ask no matter what! So… will you say yes when I do?"

Yuriko remained silent but smiled and nodded, still not making eye contact. Eiichi smiled and kissed her on the cheek, a slight blush across his own cheeks and a chuckle in his voice. As Yuriko leaned in to kiss him back, a loud crack of thunder sounded through and the brightness of the dream faded to black and gray as a storm rolled in, ruining the moment. She began to fall backward and through the earth and a sense of foreboding took over the young kunoichi as her dream slowly morphed into a nightmare as she heard her mother's voice urgently calling her name.

"Yuriko… Yuriko, wake up!"

Yuriko's eyes shot open to meet the violet eyes of her mother whose expression was troubled and terrified but still calm and collected.

"Grab your weapons. All of them, quickly," Amaya demanded just above a whisper and Yuriko jumped up from her bed, doing as she was told.

When Yuriko had procured all of her weaponry, Amaya held her hand and they snuck through the house keeping their heads low until they came to the kitchen. It was then that Yuriko noticed the red glow from outside of the window that she knew wasn't from lightning while her mother hurriedly gathered a small bag of food.

"Mom, what's going on?" Yuriko whispered.

"This village isn't safe anymore. When we get outside, stay close to me. If anything happens to me, if I tell you to run, you run and I want you to keep running no matter what. Head south, trust no one, and avoid the Rain and Mist villages at all costs. Do whatever you have to in order to stay alive, even if that means taking someone else's life. Your father and I have trained you well. You'll know what to do."

"Where's Dad? And what about Lynx?"

"Your father is taking care of business and Lynx was a stray before she found you. She can take care of herself."

"But—!"

"No buts. You'll do as I say when I say it, do you understand me?" her mother growled, strapping the bag onto Yuriko's back and Yuriko feebly nodded in understanding.

Just then there was a banging at the front door and Amaya quickly unlocked the back door and pushed Yuriko outside. Her eyes widened seeing all of the houses around her gone up in flames, people running around and shinobi cackling as they chased the villagers like they were chasing after prey for the slaughter. Bodies littered the ground with kunai sticking out of their backs like pins in a pincushion and the sounds of people screaming in terror and agony as they were hunted or burned alive under the rubble of their houses ablaze in an inferno collapsed on top of them assaulted her ears. Yuriko looked to the house next door that Eiichi lived in and she could see her best friend running toward her, panic and terror on his face as his cheeks glistened with tears that mixed with the water from the still pouring rain.

"Yuriko! Amaya ba-san! Please help me!" Eiichi hollered out and as Yuriko took a step toward him, her hand reaching out, she saw a flash of silver from behind him and his eyes rolled in his head, his expression frozen as he fell forward into the mud, unmoving.

A pool of blood formed beneath him and the shinobi who had slain him turned his eyes to Yuriko with a malicious grin. Before Yuriko could wretch or scream, Amaya grabbed her hand and they took off, the murderous shinobi who had killed Eiichi following after them, laughing maniacally. Their trail was cut off a couple miles away from their house by a Mist shinobi with a large sword across his back and spiked black hair wearing bandages to cover the lower half of his face, and their escape behind them was blocked by the shinobi who had cut down Eiichi.

"Draw your kunai, Yuriko. Remember all of the training you've done since you were a child. It was all for a day like this," Amaya stated and Yuriko nodded.

The shinobi standing in front of Yuriko chuckled but a kunai sliding across his jugular from behind strangled the sound and his eyes widened as he reached for his throat. As he fell to his knees, Yuriko's eyes teared up at the sight of her father. His usually pristine silver hair was dirty and matted to his face with blood and dirt and there were senbon, shuriken and kunai protruding from his back and legs, pouring blood.

"Yuriko, sweetheart," Isamu forced a strained smile. "Run."

With a final glance between her parents, Yuriko focused chakra into her feet as her mother had taught her to do, and ran for her life, the sound of metal clashing echoing behind her as her parents both faced the remaining Mist shinobi to buy her time to escape. When she heard Amaya scream, she paused and looked back. The shadows depicted the scene perfectly and Yuriko watched, frozen in terror and disbelief. First, her father's frame seemed to fall in slow motion, seemingly struck down by the monstrous sword of the Mist shinobi, and being the reason for her mother's scream of agony. Next came a quick movement on the part of the Mist shinobi as Amaya recklessly attacked him in her grief. A round object was thrown into the air, and Amaya's petite frame slowly sank to her knees. Yuriko brought her hands to her mouth to stifle the scream and vomit that threatened to spill forth at the realization that she'd just witnessed her mother's beheading.

She gathered enough sense and focus to make three clones of herself to take off in different directions and forced more chakra into her legs and feet to propel her forward, quickly turning away from the gruesome scene and ran through the blurred vision created by her tears to get as far away from that monster as quickly as she possibly could.

* * *

A crash of thunder and a bone-chilling scream startled Kakashi awake. It sounded like a female and it sounded close, so he pulled his mask up, grabbed a kunai, and ran through his apartment to his balcony door, throwing it open and on high alert. The wind whipped his hair and sleeping pants around in a frenzy and rain pelted against his bare arms and torso in stinging needles. The scream was coming from his right and it had apparently woken up the neighbors, as well, as a few lights turned on in other apartments except Yuriko's. Putting two and two together, Kakashi examined her balcony door and window to see no signs of forced entry before making his way to her front door, also seeing no damage. Pressing his ear to the door, he could hear that the screaming was indeed from inside and slammed himself against the door to let himself in, yelling her name.

When he'd barged his way in, the sound of her screaming grew louder and louder the closer he got to her bedroom. He swung the door open and his heart wrenched seeing Yuriko tangled up in her sheets and curled into herself, screaming, her pillow drenched in tears and her face contorted in an agony that could only be expressed if someone had experienced an unspeakable loss. He threw himself onto the bed beside her and shook her shoulder, calling out her name, hoping and praying to get through to her.

Yuriko's eyes shot open, her screaming instantly stopping and she grabbed onto his arm, throwing him onto the bed and agilely maneuvering herself to pin him below her, rendering him motionless and stealing his kunai, pressing it to his throat. Her expression was wild and terrified and she was panting, tears streaming down her face as she slowly came to. When she'd gained enough of her senses back and recognized the masked face below her, she instantly released him from her hold and jumped off of him, handing the kunai back to him.

"K-Kakashi-senpai, I… what are you doing here?" she rasped, her throat raw.

"You were screaming…" he stated, his eyes calm and understanding as he sat up and took the weapon back.

"I was screaming..?" she whispered, and the nightmare she'd been having flashed through her mind. She shivered but bit her lip and cleared her throat, composing herself as best as she could by putting on a strong face. "I'm sorry for waking you, senpai. Thanks for your concern, but I'm fine n—"

Another window-rattling crack of thunder cut her off and made Yuriko jump and scream, curling into herself in a crouching position with her hands over her ears and eyes clenched shut. Her strong façade was demolished as she sat, trembling and in a cold sweat and rocking on her heels. She rushed through her lullaby and Kakashi's expression softened. He took the blanket from off of her bed and gently wrapped it around her. Feeling the warmth, Yuriko stopped rocking and slowly opened her eyes to look up at Kakashi who sighed and ran his fingers through his hair.

"We can't always be strong, Yuriko," he cooed after a moment of silence between the two of them, the hand in his hair moving to caress over his left eye.

There was a soft knock at the door and the shinobi duo turned their attention to the new sound to see a middle aged lady wearing a heavy bathrobe and curlers in her hair. "Excuse me… Sorry to intrude, but is everything alright? The screaming woke us up and we're all worried," she inquired, her voice soft and motherly.

"I'm sorry," Yuriko rasped, the blush across her cheeks deepening and embarrassed tears threatening to spill over her lower lids as she stood and bowed, her usually strong demeanor now shy and timid. "I'm sorry to have caused you so much trouble. I'm so sorry."

"No need to apologize, dear. I'm just glad you're okay," the woman smiled, patting Yuriko's shoulder. "You take care of her, young man," she then said to Kakashi and turned to leave and let everyone else know that everything was fine and that they could go back to bed.

It was silent between the two after the woman had left and Kakashi sighed. Yuriko was still shaking and she wouldn't even look in his direction. The storm was still raging and Yuriko's door probably wouldn't lock since he'd literally burst his way in and he didn't want to leave her alone. She was haunted by whatever it had been that she was dreaming of and he didn't know her well, but she was still a comrade—a fellow Konoha shinobi. She'd been alone for too long and he couldn't leave a comrade in need.

"Yuriko… would you like some tea?" he inquired.

It was silent for a moment but she'd looked up at him finally, confusion on her face. "What?"

"Tea. Would you like a cup? I don't know if what I have would be suitable to your tastes, but I won't be able to get back to sleep any time soon so you are more than welcome to join me for a cup. And, I may have broken your door to get to you, so if you would be more comfortable sleeping behind locked doors, you are welcome to stay."

A short pause passed between the two as Yuriko thought about what he was offering before she nodded and Kakashi smiled from under his mask. She only grabbed her herbal tea and book, figuring she could come back if she needed anything else and followed Kakashi to his apartment, doing the best she could to close the door behind them as they left despite the heavy damage to the frame. When she'd walked into Kakashi's apartment, she blankly looked around noticing that there were no decorations and that the apartment was extremely simple and not much different from how hers had been when she first moved in. While she took a seat on the couch, he put the kettle on and went to his room to retrieve his own book, taking a seat in the chair when he'd returned.

"Senpai…"

"Hm?" Kakashi hummed, already absorbed in the words of his book.

"About the screaming… Can we keep that just between the two of us? …Please?"

"Would it be too much for me to ask if it was caused by the thunder or the nightmare?"

"Yes… both."

Kakashi nodded and let the topic go, closing his book and standing up to pour the tea. They sat together in content silence, reading their books and drinking their tea and after reading a couple chapters, Kakashi yawned and looked over at Yuriko. She'd fallen asleep with her book open to the page she'd been on clasped in her hands still and her head bent. The storm had dissipated, finally, he noticed and sighed in relief. Setting his own book down, Kakashi walked to his room and changed the sheets on his bed. When he came back, he removed the book from her grasp, placing it on the coffee table before lifting her bridal style from the couch as smoothly as he could manage to move her to his bed where he thought she'd be more comfortable.

He was surprised by how light she was and the scent of lavender and vanilla caught his attention as her head rested on his shoulder and long silver tresses swayed with each step that he took. When he'd laid her on the bed and tucked her in, he couldn't help but to stare for a moment. Her hair was a wild mess splayed out beneath her and her face was calmer than it had been, though her eyes were still swollen with bags beneath them from her crying. Her brow was furrowed and tense and her lips were pressed into a thin line, but she was in a deep sleep, he could tell by her deep, even breathing.

Just as she'd done for him before to soothe away his tension and nightmares, he gently rubbed along the bridge of her nose and between her eye brows until her expression had softened before he grabbed a shirt from his closet, turned off the light, and left the door open a crack behind him as he took his leave of the room, grabbing a spare blanket and pillow for himself from his hall closet and throwing them on the couch before locking up his apartment and making his way to report to the Hokage about the night's events.


	10. Chapter 10

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_Thanks to everyone who has been favoriting and following this story. And a special thanks to those of you who have reviewed and let me know what you think. I'm baffled every time I refresh the page and see that the hits count has increased by hundreds within just a few hours. I really can't describe how much I appreciate you guys. Please continue to support me and I'll do the best I can to keep providing you with an awesome story. :) –Nira_

Chapter 10

"What brings you here in the middle of the night, Kakashi?" the elder man inquired, his weathered face showing his concern. "And in your pajamas, to boot."

"My apologies for my unprofessional appearance, Hokage-sama. I came to inform you that Yuriko's apartment has been broken into and that her door, and possibly the frame will need replacing as soon as possible," the silver haired male stated.

"By who? Do we know their motive?"

"It was me, Hokage-sama. She'd been screaming and it had woken me and a few of the neighbors up, but when I surveyed her apartment, there were no signs of a forced entry anywhere to indicate that there had been an intruder."

"… Go on…"

"I forced myself in to find her still asleep in her room but gripped in a night terror and screaming. When I'd shaken her awake she attempted to placate me by saying that she was fine, but when a loud clap of thunder shook the building, she screamed and curled into herself, shaking in terror. I calmed her down, offered her a cup of tea and put her to bed in my apartment for safety and security reasons, seeing as her door no longer performs its intended purpose at this point in time."

The Hokage sighed, his pipe clenched between his teeth as he processed the new information.

"When you woke her… did she say anything? Anything at all about what she had been dreaming about?"

"No, she didn't and please don't ask me to gather that information from her. I know all too well about the hauntings of the past and it would be cruel of me to make her relive something that traumatic for the sole purpose of reconnaissance."

"No, no, of course I wouldn't ask you to do such a thing. Please continue to provide me with reports about any noteworthy occurrences. As for the issue of her door, I will have someone sent to replace it first thing in the morning."

Kakashi nodded in understanding and took his leave with a bow, quickly returning home, hoping that he hadn't been gone too long and that Yuriko was still soundly asleep. When he'd returned, he washed the tea cups that he'd left on the end table, drying them and replacing them in their proper places in the cabinet.

He shoved his hand into his pocket and walked down the hallway to his bedroom, cracking the door open a bit further, slipping into the dark room and standing beside the bed to gaze at Yuriko once again in her sleeping state. She'd turned onto her side and her expression had remained calm, he'd noticed, though the blanket was pulled up to her nose leaving only her eyes and the halo of platinum hair splayed out beneath her visible.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, but when a yawn forced itself out, he made his way back out of the room, closing the door a bit more behind him again. As he was getting comfortable on the couch, he sighed, staring up at his ceiling, thinking about everything he knew or had discovered about Yuriko since the time they'd first met. When his mind started to wander to thoughts about how vulnerable and fragile she'd seemed when he'd awoken her and the thunder had scared her in comparison to her usual rough, stoic demeanor, a flash of attraction crossed his mind but he quickly brushed it off and closed his eyes with a sigh allowing sleep to take over.

* * *

The first thing that greeted Yuriko when she slowly fought her way through the fog of sleep was the contrast of the warmth of the sun on her back, its rays penetrating through the blankets and heating her to the core, and the coolness of the room. It made her curl into herself more, pulling her knees closer to her chest and the blankets closer to her nose.

The next thing to catch her intrigue was the scent. It was a clean scent, but it was not a familiar one to her, even in her still hazy half-awake state. There was a faint trace of a masculine and pleasantly musky and warm scent, but at the realization that it was a masculine scent, her eyes shot open and she glanced around, taking in her surroundings.

The room she was in was very simple with no decorations and the closet was slightly ajar with a few shinobi uniforms seen hanging up and a small pile of clothes on the floor. She sat up with a slight sigh of relief that she was alone. She didn't recognize where she was but she noticed that the layout of the room was identical to her own, so she scooted out of the bed, shivering as her bare feet met the cool wooden floor. The bedroom door had been left open a bit and she made her way into the hallway as silently as she could as the events from the night before slowly resurfaced to her mind.

When she had made her way to the living room, she paused at the sight of Kakashi sleeping on the couch. His silvery hair was more wild than usual and he'd slept with his mask on so she could only see the clearly defined angle of his jaw through the fabric. He'd fallen asleep with his elbow propped against the pillow and arm of the couch, his hand resting palm up over his eye and Yuriko smiled, thinking that it looked as though he'd fainted in a theatrical manner and had yet to recover from it.

She noted the smooth curves of his bi- and triceps and the tautness of the skin as it was stretched over the strong muscle beneath it and followed his arms to his torso, his pecks and the outline of his abdominal muscles defined through the thin fabric of his tight short sleeved t-shirt. She'd seen it in its entirety just the night before and she remembered it very clearly, but she pushed the thought aside. He'd offered her tea and a place to stay where he thought she might be more comfortable. He had slept on the couch in his own house and the sheets on the bed had smelled clean like he'd changed them, knowing that she'd seen a woman leaving his apartment the day before. And he'd even carried her to bed and tucked her in. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all, she thought.

As a thank you, she made her way into the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets and peeking in the fridge to see what she could prepare for breakfast for the two of them. His kitchen was as simple and bare as the rest of his apartment, and deciding that because she was unsure how long he'd be asleep, she'd just wait until he woke up to make breakfast of eggs, toast, and tea.

In the meantime, she sat in the lounge chair and noticed that Kakashi had left his orange book on the coffee table and picked it up out of curiosity, turning to the back cover to read the summary. She noticed that it was labeled with an "18+" indicator at the top corner and the interest got the better of her. As she read the summary, she felt her face flush warmer, the epiphany dawning on her that it was an adult romantic novel and looked to the still sleeping Kakashi wondering why he read it. Not only did he own the book, but he read it in public without even a glimmer of a sense of shame in his expression or demeanor as if it were just another random story that anyone would read in public. Her better thinking of him regressed a bit. He was a pervert and a womanizer. There was no denying it.

Not seeing anything else to do, she turned to the first page and began reading. It hadn't even been fifteen minutes that she'd been awake, but before she could even finish the chapter, she snapped the book shut in distaste and set it back down in boredom as she looked back over at Kakashi's still sleeping form.

"_How long is he going to be asleep for, I wonder?" _Yuriko thought as she felt her stomach tighten with hunger again before growling low.

After a short moment of debating with herself about whether or not to wake him up and if so, how, she gave up with a sigh and leaned over the back of the couch, calling to him, "Senpai… Kakashi-senpai, wake up."

She got no immediate response and frowned with a slight pout, furrowing her brows while she gently shook his shoulder. It was firm to the touch, just as it looked like it would be when she'd seen it the night before and a slight blush arose on her cheeks at the realization but she shook the thought away and shook him a bit harder. He had slowly been waking up after the first few time of hearing his name called. His right eye fluttered half open and he stared up at the silver haired figure whose tresses had begun to fall loose from behind her ear to tickle his open palm and who was still gently shaking him like a child, the slightly flustered expression on her face bringing a slight grin to his lips before it was replaced with annoyance that she'd woken him up and that she was still shaking him.

"What time is it?" he yawned, trying not to show his irritation.

"Seven thirty-ish."

"No… too early…" Kakashi grumbled, turning his back to her and pulling the blanket over his head to prevent her from shaking him any longer and Yuriko was taken aback, withdrawing her hand.

"But… the sun is already up."

"A pain, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm not going back to sleep so it might be more comfortable if you moved to the bed."

"Perhaps…"

"What do you mean 'perhaps'? It's your bed," she stated, cocking her hip and resting her fist on it.

"Yes. And you are more than welcome to return to it," he heaved, wishing she'd get the point and go back to bed.

"But I'm not going back to sleep. If you are, you should move to your bed."

"That requires effort and to leave the warmth and comfort that I am experiencing here on the couch right now."

"But wouldn't the bed be more comfortable?"

"Probably. A bed is just a bed, though. It's just a place to sleep, and so is a couch and since I'm already on the couch, there's no point in moving." His patience was growing thinner as the pointless conversation continued and was waking him up more and more so it'd be more and more difficult for him to go back to sleep.

"That's not how I see it…" Yuriko stated, her tone darkening a bit and Kakashi noticed, his interest now piqued and focus more alert. "A bed is a home to me."

Kakashi's heart wrenched. He'd never thought of it that way. The only times he hadn't had a bed to return to were when he was on missions, but even when he wasn't, a bed had always just been a bed. What was it like to not even know when you'd ever get to sleep in one again? He gave up on the thought of getting back to sleep and slowly uncovered his head with a yawn, glancing back up at Yuriko from the corner of his eye. Before either of them could open their mouths to continue the conversation, there was a loud crack from outside making them jump and stand on guard as they rushed to the door and threw it open. They were greeted by a couple men in hard hats working on Yuriko's door who smiled and waved before they continued the demolition of the frame to replace it.

"That was fast…" Yuriko thought aloud.

"Well, so much for getting a bit more sleep…"

Yuriko's eyes widened as a thought hit her. If they were fixing her door, she wouldn't be able to get into her apartment. She didn't have any clothes to change into with her and the only form of entertainment that she had was her book that she was almost finished with. Her stomach then growled to remind her that she hadn't eaten yet, either and her eyes narrowed at the awful timing of everything. Kakashi's eyebrow raised and it just then occurred to him that she must have been hungry, hence why she'd woken him up.

"I don't have much of a selection and my cooking skills aren't nearly on par with yours, but I'm willing to share what I have," Kakashi stated as he walked back into his apartment. "It is my fault that your door is needing repair, after all."

"I don't want to impose on you any more than I already have," she responded, really wanting to say that she didn't trust him enough to stay for even longer than breakfast since she'd planned on leaving once they'd eaten.

"Where are you going to go? You can't get into your apartment with them working on the door and you're still in sleeping clothes so you can't go out into public like that."

Yuriko remained silent, glaring at the back of his head. He had a point as much as she hated to admit it. Kakashi went to the kitchen and brought out the ingredients that Yuriko, herself, had planned on using to make eggs, toast, and tea, and he made just that. It wasn't long until he'd finished and the two sat in awkward silence at the kitchen table, eating their food. When they'd finished, Yuriko thanked him and sulked to the lounge chair with her book and Kakashi folded up the blanket and pillow he'd used, returning them to their place in the hallway closet. He grabbed his own book and took a seat at the couch. Within a couple of hours, Yuriko had finished her book and sighed as she closed it, gazing out the window.

"Senpai..?" she mused.

"Hm?" Kakashi hummed.

"How did they know my door needed fixing?"

"I told the Hokage that I broke into your apartment and he had someone come fix it."

"Why did you do that? What else did you tell him?" she demanded, turning enough to glare at him.

"I figured he should know seeing as he's the one who has invested quite a bit of money and trust in you to give you a place to stay and a high ranking position within our society. I told him the situation; nothing more, and nothing less."

"I asked you not to tell anyone."

"He needed to know. He trusts you as an elite Konoha shinobi. If I hadn't shared that information with him, it could have compromised a later mission if it had been revealed in the middle of a critical mission. You are not the only one in the ANBU who has secrets and demons, but the only one who knows enough of everyone's to prevent mission disaster caused by those shadows is the Hokage."

Again, she huffed, realizing that he had a good point. If she hadn't had that conversation with Iruka in the graveyard and if it hadn't just happened to storm the same night it wouldn't have even been revealed. It would have remained a secret that she had night terrors and screamed and was terrified of thunder storms and she wouldn't have to be stuck inside with this loathsome womanizer and nothing to do for the day until her door was fixed. After another half hour or so of the continued construction, Yuriko grew more and more antsy and Kakashi noticed, especially since she had no way of staying entertained with him not being used to hosting a guest and her having finished her book.

"Sah, Yuriko-san?" Kakashi started, uncomfortable with the silence and growing tension from her restlessness. "There's no sense in just waiting around for your door to be repaired. Would you like to get out of the house for a while?"


	11. Chapter 11

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. _

_Thanks to everyone who has been favoriting and following this story. And a special thanks to those of you who have reviewed and let me know what you think. I'm so sorry it's been forever since I've updated. I've been stuck. :( But, here is the next chapter. I wonder if it'll be up to standards. I hope so. Anyway, I really can't describe how much I appreciate you guys. Please continue to support me and I'll do the best I can to keep providing you with an awesome story. :) –Nira_

Chapter 11

"Kakashi! You're out early. What's the occasion?" came the familiar voice of Genma from not too far ahead of the duo and Yuriko blushed and crossed her arms in a huff.

Kakashi had noticed Yuriko's restlessness of sitting in the house while she waited for her door to be restored to its former functional state and convinced her that they should get out and get some fresh air and relative quiet from the construction sounds. With that being said, since she was unable to enter her house, she had had no choice but to not only shower at Kakashi's, but to borrow a temporary outfit until she could get her own while they were out on the town as well and she was mortified that someone they both knew had seen her in such a deplorable state.

"Something came up," Kakashi stated as he gestured toward Yuriko.

Genma's gaze perked up upon seeing the young kunoichi dressed in a pair of Kakashi's black sleeping pants, an under armor shirt of his that was a couple sizes too big on her, and one of his masks. Even with the mask covering the majority of her face, the blush of her cheeks could be seen just above it, and her lavender eyes were defiant. The senbon-wielding shinobi couldn't help but to take note of how childish she seemed in the too-big clothes she was wearing and the rebellious pout, her hip cocked to the side, arms crossed across her chest, and eyes narrowed into a glare at nobody and nothing in particular. His mind instantly jumped to conclusions of what could have happened between the two silver-haired shinobi for the kunoichi to be dressed in her senpai's clothing, knowing Kakashi's reputation with the ladies.

"Oh, I get it." Genma exaggerated the "oh" by drawing it out and followed it with a chuckle. "You'll have to spill the details some time, buddy."

"It's not like that, Genma," Kakashi defended with a sigh, instantly catching on to Genma's thought of what had happened between him and Yuriko by the way he'd said it. She hated him. There was no way in Hell she'd even think about sleeping with him, not that he'd want to anyway. It was confirmed when her glare hardened and was pointed directly at him before she scoffed and stomped away, rolling her eyes.

"Men are so gross…" she muttered loud enough for the two of them to hear as she pushed her way past them leaving them both rubbing their shoulders where she'd collided with them.

"Jeeze… Who shat in her coffee this morning?" Genma winced.

Kakashi simply sighed and followed her, shoving his hands into his pockets and leaving his friend behind in a confused stupor.

When they'd reached the clothing store, Yuriko perused the racks and seeing the price tags on some of the items she liked, she grumbled in defeat, knowing that she didn't have the money but tried to play it off by casually making her way to the clearance racks. Kakashi noticed and thought back to the other day, remembering his conversation with the old shop keep lady and how she'd said that Yuriko looked upset that she couldn't afford the fan. To test his theory, he fingered through the clothes and picked a top that he thought might be cute on her—a lavender colored baby-doll sleeved tunic with flowers and butterflies embroidered along the pleated skirt. She'd been looking at it but put it back with that bitter look on her face, probably because of the price, a pretty penny of 4453 yen.

"What do you think about this one?" he inquired.

"Too expensive," she refuted immediately.

"Why not at least try it on? I think it would look nice on you."

She sighed and rolled her eyes as she snatched the fabric from his outstretched hand, continuing to peruse through the clearance racks for another, cheaper shirt and a pair of bottoms. Kakashi took it upon his self to look throughout the store to find a good outfit to suit her, keeping his cool, nonchalant demeanor as he lazily meandered through the racks and shelves, leafing through the myriad of fabrics with apparent boredom. When he saw Yuriko walking toward the dressing rooms with a small armful of clothing, he handed her his own small collection.

"What is this?" she demanded, eying him suspiciously.

"Just try them on. You don't have to buy them if you don't like them."

He shoved the clothes into her arms and gently pushed her toward the dressing room with a tense, awkward smile on his face that was meant to be supportive and encouraging but failed miserably. When she'd closed and locked the door, he let out a sigh and waited leaning against the wall just outside of the dressing rooms, well aware of the fact that the female staff were having whispered conversations about him and decided to eavesdrop.

"Isn't that Kakashi Hatake? What's he doing in here?" the young woman with short, brown hair and big green eyes whispered to her taller, black-haired friend.

"He's as cute as everyone says, but who's that lady he's with? I've never seen her before."

"Maybe she's his sister or something. They're both wearing masks and their hair is practically identical."

"Maybe she's his girlfriend?"

"Or maybe they have _that _kind of relationship."

The girls blushed and gasped, giggling to themselves at the scandal of it and before he could roll his eyes and ignore them as he'd been doing up to that point, he heard Yuriko open the door and turned to look, thinking that she hadn't been in there long enough to try everything on.

"Is this some kind of joke?" she demanded, glaring at him with her hip cocked to the side and her fist rested against it.

No matter how much she looked at it, the fact remained—she was hardly clothed at all. The dark blue jean shorts were very short and high-waisted, accentuating the curves of her waist, hips, and rear end, and the top was a chiffon pink ruffled off-the-shoulder crop top that ended just below her supple breasts and she definitely hadn't been the one to pick them out.

"Yes, it's a joke. I didn't think you'd actually try them on or show me anything you tried on at all. I honestly expected you to throw them at me once you'd found them."

"Do you pull this kind of prank on every woman you spend any kind of time with? And how did you even know my size? You haven't been snooping through my things, have you, senpai?"

"I'm offended. If you must know, you're the first woman I've ever actively gone shopping with. And as far as knowing your size, let's just say that I've had plenty of practice in guessing."

"You're fucking disgusting," she scoffed, whipping around and returning to the confines of the dressing room.

"I swear that was the only scanty outfit in the pile that I handed to you. It really was meant to be a joke but you saw them and tried them on anyway… why is that?"

A slight blush creeped to her cheeks. Why had she tried them on? She wasn't a huge fan of the color pink and she'd always thought that high waist pants and shorts were for people with a better coke-bottle shape than hers, not that she was without curves at all. Not saying another word she quickly stripped, putting on the next outfit of a pair of faded dark blue destroyed jeans and a gray short-sleeved tunic with a plunging back and draped neckline that revealed a bit of her chest, but not too much that it made her uncomfortable. It was another outfit that Kakashi had picked and she cocked an eye brow, thinking that this one actually looked really good on her and was in good taste. It was casual but still slightly dressy and with the right accessories, she knew she could make the outfit stand out if she ever wanted to go out with Kurenai again, hopefully not in such a large group next time.

Kakashi had assumed that he wasn't getting an answer to his question and heard that she'd taken the outfit off and was changing into another. When the sound of cloth rustling had stopped and Yuriko had gone quiet, he noticed that she wasn't grumbling or opening the door to scold him again so he guessed that she liked what she was trying on, whatever it was. He then heard a bit more rustling followed by a sneer that he'd learned to equate with her disappointed bitterness before the shuffling started up again, indicating that she was changing yet again. This happened a few more times before she finally came out of the changing room, the dissatisfaction plastered on her face.

"Did you find something you liked?" he inquired.

She shoved a pile of clothes into his chest, keeping only one outfit and walking toward the register. Upon further inspection, he noted that the only items she'd kept had had clearance tags on them confirming his suspicion that she was out of money. One of the employees, the brunette, came over and asked if there was anything she could take from Kakashi, so he handed her the pile of clothes that Yuriko wasn't purchasing with a smile.

"Sorry about you having to put all of this back," he apologized for Yuriko.

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's a part of the job," she smiled back pleasantly before walking off to return the items to their proper places on the racks.

Yuriko finished paying for her things and asked if she could change into them right away while Kakashi waited, leaning against the check-out counter, removing his favorite book from his pocket and flipping it open to the page he'd been reading before. It wasn't long before Yuriko returned and asked for a bag to put the clothes she had been wearing in and Kakashi glanced up to see her in a simple outfit of light blue destroyed jeans and a simple violet camisole and still wearing his mask. The two walked out of the store, Kakashi still absorbed in his book and Yuriko wanting to get rid of him as quickly as possible.

"Thank you for your hospitality, senpai, but I'll be okay on my own now. I'll wash your clothes and bring them back to you as soon as possible."

"Well, since I'm out, is there anything else you'd like to do?"

"Nothing that I want company for."

"Do you really dislike me that much that you don't even want to be anywhere near me?"

"Yes."

"Why? Have I done anything in specific to upset or offend you, aside from the outfit?"

"Do you really want to know?" she snapped, reeling around to face him, her expression vicious and promising words of venom. "I hate you because you're a vile, perverted womanizing pig of a human being who has no sense of urgency. At first you just irritated me with your tardiness but now I think it's intentional with all the bullshit excuses you give whenever you are late. And the fact that you read that repulsive book in public without even a glimmer of a sense of decency and that you have a reputation for sleeping around makes you all the more revolting. I've seen too many men like you and they were all scum who got what they deserved in the end.

"I don't like you. I don't trust you. We are not friends. We have no relationship of any sort outside of work or as neighbors. I want nothing to do with you, so you can stop this friendly buddy-buddy act that you've got going on right now. You don't know anything about me and I know more than enough about you to despise you. Like I said, I appreciate your hospitality from last night, but that's as far as it goes between us, got it?"

Kakashi slowly closed his book and returned it to its place in his pants pocket before he leaned in closer to Yuriko until he was at her eye level with his arms lax and hands in his pockets. His expression was stoic, but his mind was seething. He slowly lifted his headband and both of his eyes penetrated into Yuriko's soul and spilled out darkness both entirely different from and similar to her own. Her eyes widened, a terror running down her spine and paling her complexion as a wave of nausea swept through her. She wasn't caught in a genjutsu, she knew for sure of that, but the dread of being caught in one was very real.

"Be careful what you assume, Yuriko. Just as I know nothing about you, you know nothing about me. I have been trying to be courteous and welcoming toward you since you got here but you test my patience. You think you know so much but you are truly a fool."

He stood back up and took a step around her, casually replacing his headband over his sharingan while she stood frozen to the spot staring where his eyes had been. It wasn't until she couldn't feel his presence anymore that she finally broke free of the trepidation that his gaze had caused and collapsed, gasping for the breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding as she clutched at her heart.

Kurenai and Asuma had been out and happened to be passing by when they'd seen the conversation between Kakashi and Yuriko. They hadn't heard anything, but they'd seen Yuriko's expression when Kakashi had moved in closer and it was enough to worry the two when he casually walked away and she collapsed. The two made eye contact and made their way over to where Yuriko was.

"Yuriko?" Kurenai called and Yuriko's eyes were wide as they darted up to look at the source of the sound that had startled her out of her thoughts. "Is everything okay?"

Yuriko's head swiveled around to see if Kakashi was still nearby, but when he wasn't anywhere to be seen, she sighed in relief, though she couldn't shake the dreadful feeling their conversation had left.

"Yeah… I'm fine…" she stated, standing and dusting herself off, holding the bag tighter in her grasp.

"What happened?"

"It's nothing. I, uh… I have to go…"

Yuriko bowed briefly before hurrying away, shaking her head and running a hand through her hair as she made her way through the village. She needed to let off steam, but she was hardly dressed for training and it was broad daylight so it wouldn't be wise of her to go for a swim, else she might be seen in her nudity. She was anxious and didn't know how to relieve her anxiety if she couldn't physically work it out due to her wardrobe restrictions. It was going to be a very long day and it had only just begun.


	12. Chapter 12

_*Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. I simply borrow them for my own musings and fantasies and do not got paid for their use in said musings or fantasies. –Nira_

_Hey, everyone! I know it's literally been over a year since I've last updated. Life is crazy and extremely busy. Anyway, thank you all so much for sticking with me through this rewriting process! Thanks a million to Momochan77 for your continued support and PMs with your thoughts. I really do appreciate you, even if I don't always respond to your PMs. And a HUGE thanks to MidnightTheDreamer for pointing out my major flaws and giving me a push in the right direction. If it hadn't been for your extremely helpful constructive criticism, I probably would have given up on this story once I got stuck and never looked back which is, unfortunately more common than I'd like to admit._

_To everyone else, how have you been enjoying this new story so far? Similar, but very different from the original, isn't it? This is what I was hoping the story to be like originally, but I was really bad at how I was portraying the characters, especially Yuriko, so I changed it. I hope it's still interesting enough to keep you coming back for more. I'm definitely a lot more excited to see what happens, so I hope you are too. This is still a work in progress and I'm still not entirely sure where I'm going with it, but I'm looking forward to learning with you. _

_Please don't forget to review and let me know what you think of the changes if you've read the original, and if you're new to the series, please let me know what you think about the story in general since you'd have no way of knowing what the original was like anyway. Thanks a million, and please enjoy this latest and the newest (as in, I hadn't even finished the original chapter 12 yet) chapter. ^_^ - Nira_

Chapter 12

"So, spill the beans, Kakashi," Genma grinned from across the table from Kakashi as they sat together at a bar-be-que restaurant. "What was going on with you and Yuriko?"

"Nothing," Kakashi stated flatly, bored and irritated with the conversation already and it had just started.

"Come on, don't give me that! She was wearing your clothes for crying out loud!"

"It was only because she couldn't get into her own apartment. They were fixing her door."

"What was wrong with her door?"

"It was broken…" The tone of his voice and the look in his eye as he gazed at Genma was snarky as if he'd added "duh" to the end of the statement.

"Well, obviously if they were fixing it, but whywas it broken? Did something happen?"

Kakashi remained silent and turned to take a shot of the sake they'd ordered while they waited for their meat to cook. Genma pouted with a sigh, switching his senbon to the other side of his mouth and resting his chin on his fist while he flipped a few pieces of beef on the grill, realizing that he wasn't going to get anything out of his friend and that he wasn't in a very good mood.

"She's cute, but she's got a bad attitude. I wonder what happened to make her so bitter, especially toward men," Genma mused aloud and it struck Kakashi as something he hadn't even thought to question.

There was a long lull in the conversation as both men were absorbed in their own thoughts but it was Genma to break the silence again.

"Did you know that she hangs out with the kid a lot?"

Kakashi sighed, trying to forget about the accusations that Yuriko had thrown at him not even an hour earlier and the tense conversation it turned into, but his friend was making it really hard not to think about her. He was still on orders to watch her, but he really didn't want to after what had just happened between the two of them. Instead, maybe he could get some more intel from Genma who seemed to be more interested in his new teammate than he was, himself.

"Oh?" he inquired, playing coy.

"He calls her 'nee-chan.' He got himself into trouble again yesterday and ran behind her when Iruka came to scold him and she apologized on his behalf, scolding him, herself instead before telling him to go home. When he said he didn't have anyone at home waiting for him, she asked Iruka and me about his parents and left. Iruka said she'd gone and paid her respects at the memorial immediately after that."

"Why would she do that?" Kakashi inquired, genuinely curious and intrigued for the first time since he'd agreed to join Genma for lunch.

"Iruka said that when he asked, she spoke of death in a way he'd never heard anyone speak of it before. She was eloquent and melancholy and he says that the expression on her face as she explained it broke his heart… Kinda makes you wish you'd been there to see it for yourself, doesn't it?"

Something clicked for Kakashi then. He knew exactly what Iruka had seen in her expression. He'd seen the face of someone with nothing left to lose. As much as she tried to hide it behind her cynical mien, Kakashi had witnessed it a few times and it stole his breath every time. It was the same as his. She was just as broken as him. The only difference was that she tried so hard to hide it that it made itself more obvious. Suddenly he was ashamed of himself for not having had noticed it sooner.

* * *

It was another three hours before Yuriko could return home and she literally wandered around the city the entire time in a terrible mood and anyone who saw her could tell so they made sure to give her space. When she got home, she immediately changed into her training gear and made her way back out. Her irritation and anxiety had just been seething and amplifying within her as she ambled around the city and she was desperate to release it.

In her hurry down the stairs, she collided with someone on their way up and took a step back, bowing low without even looking to see who it was that she'd run into. She just knew that they were taller than her and very sturdy. They hadn't been swayed at all by her entire weight crashing into them.

"Excuse me," she muttered and took a step around them, still not looking to see who it was that she'd run into.

She guessed that they were a shinobi by their blue pants and leg pouches. As the realization dawned on her as to who it could have been, he called her name and her face paled and heartrate increased. It was Kakashi.

"About earlier," he started with a sigh.

"No," she interceded and quickened her pace down the stairs.

Flustered that she hadn't even let him finish and that her response didn't even answer what he was going to say, Kakashi followed, calling for her to wait and she walked even faster. Growing more and more frustrated, he sped up to catch up to her only to have her quicken her pace even more until he was literally chasing after her.

"Yuriko, wait!"

"No! Go away, senpai!"

"Not until you listen to what I have to say!"

"Can't we please just forget about it?!"

"I tried and it's not working! Just listen to me!"

"No! I don't want to listen to anything you have to say!"

"Why are you such a child?!" he growled in vexation.

Yuriko stopped in the middle of the field that they'd first fought at and screamed, her anxiety, irritation, frustration, melancholy, loneliness, everything pouring out of her voice box in a long, high pitched wail as she pulled her hair at the roots. A flock of birds from the surrounding area, startled from their roosts took flight, cawing and twittering in fear. When she'd finished, she slowly turned to face him, exhaustion on her face and turmoil in her eyes as her entire being had deflated and she looked tired and ragged.

"What, senpai?" she demanded in a heavy sigh. "There's something I have to do, so please make it quick."

"I just wanted to apologize. I spoke out of spite earlier and said some very unpleasant things."

Yuriko stared at him, her expression blank. "You mean to tell me that you chased me all the way out here just to apologize for an instance that you didn't even provoke?"

Kakashi was taken aback. When she put it that way, it did sound stupid. She pursed her lips and slowly nodded her head as if agreeing with him that he was being silly though he hadn't said anything at all.

"Is there anything else you'd like to say or ask, senpai?"

"Let's talk. You and I have gotten off on the wrong foot and I'd like to make amends. Perhaps we could start over?"

Yuriko was quiet for a moment, thinking about it. She had been pretty stand-offish from the beginning. Old habits were really hard to break and he really had been kind in general. He'd done nothing wrong to her, so she honestly had no right to be so cruel. Maybe she could learn to be more trusting of people starting with him.

"Fight me and then we'll talk," she stated all of a sudden, coming to a decision to take a chance.

"What? Why?"

"I'm anxious. I won't be able to sleep tonight or I'll scream again if I don't let it out. Fight me like you mean it and then we'll talk. Deal?"

"Why are you anxious?"

Yuriko shook her head. "Fight me and we'll talk later, or turn around and leave me alone, forgetting that anything ever happened earlier and that this encounter also never happened."

Kakashi sighed. He'd pursued her because he was concerned that she wasn't adapting well to her new life by how easily and often her mask cracked and exposed the emotional turbulence behind it, so it would be counter-productive to walk away now when she was willing to open up at least a little bit and explain why. He'd expected opposition, but he hadn't expected that she would literally want to fight him. He wondered passively if it was a common occurrence for her to get this wound up or if it was only since coming to Konoha and dealing with more people than she was used to that it had become a bigger problem.

Yuriko bit her lip. Of course he was going to walk away, she thought. He had no reason to help her. She hadn't even worded it to sound like she was asking for help at all, so how was he supposed to know that she desperately needed it? She'd been a royal bitch to him on multiple occasions. She really was still like a child, the way she pouted and threw fits and hollered if things didn't go the way she wanted them to. If he did decide to walk away, she had every intention of being highly destructive and tearing up the landscape, but if he stayed, she could be constructive in her violence and use it for training purposes rather than meaningless devastation.

She sighed and turned her back to Kakashi after a short pause, assuming that he was going to leave. She raised her hand to her hair and gently pulled a handful of it before she let her arm fall to her side and head loll back for a moment, her eyes closing. When she heard the sound of a kunai slicing through the air, her eyes shot open on high alert and she dodged to the side, watching it get lodged into the tree a few yards in front of her. In a flash, Kakashi had rounded and was attacking her head on and she drew her katana and blocked the kunai that he'd aimed at her stomach before they both jumped back.

He'd seen the pleading in her eyes before she turned around. It was fleeting and hardly noticeable, but he'd caught sight of it, sealing his decision. She was asking for help even if she hadn't outright said it. Kakashi had already uncovered his sharingan and Yuriko couldn't help the grin that crept across her face at the sight of it. He acquiesced to her request for him to fight her like he meant it so she knew that this battle would definitely serve its purpose in helping her release her tension and she was excited. It had been a long time since she'd sparred with someone who would actually be a worthy opponent. She could go all out and know that he'd be able to hold his own and still be left standing by the end of it.

She turned her game face on and crouched lower, releasing a C-ranked water bb jutsu. The bb's were about the size of a pea each but pressurized to have an explosive impact when they came into contact with solid matter to create minor contusions. Kakashi avoided the majority of them but the few that did make contact left deep bruises where they hit, temporarily numbing the surrounding area as the impact overloaded the nerve endings on the surface. Though she could have easily made it more powerful and damaging, she was just beginning to warm up and didn't want to kill him, though she doubted that simple jutsu would be enough to do so.

While Kakashi was slightly stunned, she charged forward, encasing the blade of her katana with her wind chakra. When their blades clashed, Yuriko countered with a kick to his ribs that Kakashi just as easily blocked and countered by grabbing onto her leg and throwing her up into the air. While she flipped midair to continue her attack, she met with a barrage of kunai flung at her and when one nicked her arm, she realized that the slight wound spread like a red fungus consuming her arm and burning. She instantly recognized that it was a genjutsu and released it to find herself falling and rapidly approaching the ground with Kakashi nowhere in sight. She quickly weaved a series of signs and produced her favorite jutsu, Nimbus— a solid, tangible cloud—to catch her fall and get her out of harm's way and back into the air to relative safety.

A kick to the back knocked her off of her cloud and dispersed the jutsu. The wind knocked out of her, she gasped as she glared behind her at her assailant and threw smoke bombs to bide her a bit of time to regather and re-strategize her counter-attack. With his sharingan activated, it wasn't much time before Kakashi found her again, but it was enough for her to gather her strategy and weave the hand signs for another of her petty jutsu, a mist screen infused with her chakra to confuse the Sharingan's chakra seeking ability and also create illusions. She created a few clones to continue to sneak up on Kakashi and continuously attack him while she sat back and watched how he reacted to the situation.

Kakashi had realized almost immediately that Yuriko had trapped him in a genjutstu and dispelled it with ease, but the mist remained along with Yuriko's clones so he made a couple, himself, and went to find the real Yuriko. She sat on a mid-level bough in a tree and just observed what was happening below her, apparently studying the situation. Kakashi watched her for a moment before he landed silently on a bough above her.

"Why are you studying me so intently?" he inquired and Yuriko jumped to her feet, slashing in his direction with her wind chakra blade.

"You have much more experience than I do on the battlefield, so I like to see what a seasoned vet would do in any given situation. Therefore, I create situations for you and watch how you react to them."

"You learn through observation?" he inquired as they continued their battle.

"And practical application. Because I've trained all around the ninja world, I've observed quite a bit and have been able to apply the majority of it in some way to my own style and abilities."

"You do an excellent job of it," Kakashi panted, on the defensive from the barrage of Yuriko's attacks that seemed random making it difficult for him to predict what would happen next in order to counter them. "You are indeed one of the most skilled kunoichi I've met thus far."

Yuriko stammered in her attack, her eyes widening and face flushing with the compliment and Kakashi pounced at the opportunity, kicking her feet from under her and pinning her to the ground with a kunai to her throat and his other hand clutching her hands above her head while he sat on her thighs and rendered her immobile. Yuriko stared into his eyes as they both sat there attempting to catch their breath, Kakashi's face only inches above hers. He was strong and smelled of sweat and his eyes were piercing, but in the moment, they'd lost their menace and had gained a warmth to them, Yuriko thought. When the realization that she could feel his breath against her clothed lips dawned on her, she felt her stomach tighten and had the creeping urge to lift her head to meet her lips to his.

"What would you like to know?" she asked, her gaze never wavering.

"Would you like to go out for dinner? It's gotten pretty late," he replied, still not moving, just as caught under her spell as she was of his. "My treat."

Yuriko feebly nodded and Kakashi smiled before slowly releasing her and helping her to her feet. The walk home was in awkward silence as the two shinobi were deep in thought about everything that had happened between the two of them and that perhaps this could be the start of a mutually beneficial… partnership..?


End file.
